Wild Spelks – A House Full Of Strangers

I know its reasonably unusual for us at The Punk Site to review stuff thats already out, but it’s Summer, so watching and listening to music always takes precedent over writing stuff about music. Having said this, what we have here is an EP that also gave me a dilemma on what to do, just keep listening or actually sit and scribble, the listening won until I realised you lot might be missing out on something great.

So who/what are Wild Spelks? To those of you who have not been lucky enough to come across them.  This is a band that kicked off, and is in some ways still is a solo effort, as the love child of one Jonathan Sabiston, who has written, recorded, mixed and produced the whole thing in his flat in Newcastle UK (well 90% of it, the rest was given a huge helping hand from engineer producer Chris McManus).  Having set off in 2020 exactly as I said, a solo artist, it would be amiss of us to note that this is now a full live band thing thats happening out there on the scene, and the release of this debut EP is set to catapult them into the psyche of so many more people.

What I will say from the offset is that A House Full Of Strangers is a five track EP and it leaves you wanting so much more. Opening up with ‘They’re Gonna Get You’ you’re immediately struck by the slickness of the production, this ear-worm of a track is tinged with fear and paranoia, a lyrically honest approach to life that’s wrapped in a blanket of wonderful riffs and hooks. The honestness of what’s written in this EP is non more apparent than in the next track ‘Help Myself’, it’s got to be one of the catchiest and most powerful of all musically, this belies the lyrical darkness that lies beneath, a song of substance abuse and the disastrous effects it can have on you and others, the words “I’m in trouble how about you, the writings on the wall” and “I think I need some help, but I can’t help myself” are so powerfully reflective. Following up from this is the heaviest musically, the full on fuzzy bass guitar slammer of a track that’s ‘Happy And Healthy’, another song thats just full of that anthemic feel, but with a seam of nervous energy running through it that makes it the as gritty as it deserves to be, the stand out of all.

As I alluded to at the onset of this review, this is an EP you just don’t want to end, but end it does, not before your given two more gems to have you hitting repeat several times, ‘Take It From A Friend’ has a much more Gaslight Anthem feel to it, even down to the lyrical content, its a huge big up to friendship through thick and thin. And finally ‘Getting The Band Back Together’ this is a joyous moment on the EP, its full of happy moments, its not only about bands, its about friends and being able to make music you love no matter what, and being joined by the amazing Robyn Walker from one of my favourite local bands BigFatBig on guest vocal was just the icing on the cake.

If you love The Mezingers, Weezer or Feeder, you’re on a winner here.

Go listen to this EP but don’t blame me if your hooked, yet let down by it being far too short.

Out on June 21st and fully DIY, go stream HERE

Check out the bands FACEBOOK for everything else Wild Spelks