<p><span><span>- Bathed in sunlight, Melbourne indie-pop quartet Quivers’ first full-length offering, <em>Golden Doubt</em>, has a clear missive: in the wake of devastation, love harder. A current of vitality runs through the entire record, as lead singer and guitarist <strong>Sam Nicholson</strong> reckons with the tragic loss of his brother, and the other emotional casualties of his twenties.</span></span></p>
<p><span><span>Musically, there’s plenty to love about the moreish layers of jangly, ambling guitar lines, synths and lush strings throughout the ten tracks. Opener <em>Gutters of Love</em> sees those guitars kick into gear as Nicholson finds himself low in serotonin, but nonetheless optimistic about the future. And if he’s spending too much time in the proverbial gutters, it’s comforting to hear the rest of the band there with him. Drummer <strong>Holly Thomas</strong>, bassist <strong>Bella Quinlan</strong> and guitarist <strong>Michael Panton</strong> all get a share of vocal duties, redolent of other homegrown co-ed groups like <strong>The Go-Betweens</strong>, <strong>The Goon Sax</strong> and <strong>Boomgates</strong>. </span></span></p>
<p><span><span>The cross-examination of brokenness in its many forms continues on <em>When It Breaks</em>, which gives way to the anxiety of long-distance love on <em>Hold You Back</em>. An urgent snare beat is punctuated by a violin arrangement which verges on disco. Nicholson’s voice - something in the vein of <strong>REM’s Michael Stipe</strong> or <strong>The Whitlams’ Tim Freedman</strong> - punches through: “<em>I wanna hold you but I don’t wanna hold you back</em>”, he sings. There’s more of that push-and-pull on <em>Nostalgia Will Kill You</em>, where he considers whether the promise of new love is enough to extinguish an old flame. The guitar solo on it is killer - the exact kind of drawn-out warble you can imagine an expired couple taking their last turn round the dancefloor to.</span></span></p>
<p><span><span>Just past the record’s midpoint is its real lynchpin: <em>Videostores.</em> Nicholson reflects on concrete objects of obsolescence - horses, videostores, payphones - which serve as physical links to the big thematic concerns of <em>Golden Doubt</em>. What’s worth taking into the future with us and what no longer serves us? Does grief have an expiry date? Does love? Most of the harmonies on the album bolster Sam, but here they evaporate like mist, or ghosts.</span></span></p>
<p><span><span>The actual events that cause most of the aforementioned heartache and loneliness are fleshed out in snatched lyrics throughout these songs - in lines about feeding apples to horses, confusing flings in Shanghai, bike rides to the river. But there’s a doubtless universality that permeates these songs, which will resonate with anybody who has tried to weatherproof their heart without closing it off completely.</span></span></p>
<p><span><span>Golden Doubt closes on its piano-driven titular track, where Nicholson focuses on being in the here and now. “<em>Brush the branches from your face, my friend / We won’t be back this way again,” </em>he says. The past might keep knocking, say Quivers, but there’s so much joy waiting in the present.</span></span></p>
<p><span><span>- Aleisha McLaren.</span></span></p>
<iframe style="border: 0; width: 100%; height: 120px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=3454970068/size=large/bgcol=f…; seamless><a href="https://quiversss.bandcamp.com/album/golden-doubt">Golden Doubt by Quivers</a></iframe><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/n1u8WeCb4tY" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>