UV-TV: Always Something

Releasing music since 2015 and with two albums already under their belt UV-TV’s third long player ‘Always Something’ is a gem that will keep long term fans happy whilst spreading their allure further afield with a sound that is a little lighter, just a touch more poppy yet still bubbling with slicing guitars and striking beats. 2017’s debut ‘Glass’ was full of raw, jagged, coarse edges and buzzsaw guitars. 2019’s ‘Happy’ followed in a similar vein yet showed a rapidly developing maturity to UV-TV’s songwriting and appreciation of punky melody. ‘Always Something’, the first UV-TV album to be written since their relocation from Florida to New York and their first with new drummer Ian Rose, was penned and recorded during the intense, dark days of the first Covid lockdown in 2020. And it shows. In a good way.

Those were days of potent, powerful thoughts and feelings. Days where your thought processes would veer wildly between euphoria and periods of dismal uncertainty. This has resulted in an album full of vision, strength and agitation. In previous years UV-TV have worn their influences clearly for all to see. The frantic guitars of The Shop Assistants, the hazy feedback of The Jesus And Mary Chain with a decent touch of Echo And The Bunnymen. Whilst those of a certain age might still immediately think of those similarities when first hearing ‘Always Something’ overall this is a big step away from the past and towards their own sound.

Singles ‘Distant Lullaby’, and ‘Back To Nowhere’ are full of fast, garage rock riffs and jangly 60’s guitars. Stirring, rip-roaring slices of pop-punk overlaid with the clear, spacious vocals of Rose Vastola. ‘Wildflower Master’ and ‘I Don’t Mind’ worm their way into your brain with pulsating rhythms that are both uplifting yet somehow melancholic at the same moment. The frantic pace of these glorious snippets is perfectly counterbalanced by the opening minutes of ‘Plume Master’, delicate, atmospheric, unhurried before the sudden explosion of pounding drums and slashing guitar noise of it’s closing moments, and the gentle, swaying tones of album closer ‘Holland Sunday’ that bands such as Lush once did so well. 

Having being written during what, for many, will have been some of the most difficult days of our time on this planet ‘Always Something’ searches for positivity, comfort and hope and creates perfectly the intense thrum and pulsating atmosphere that existed pre-pandemic and that will take us into the post-pandemic future.

Always Something will be released on the 28th May via Papercup Music and can be pre-ordered now from Bandcamp.