- To say that Melbourne band U-Bahn are inspired by Devo would be as big an understatement as suggesting that the state of music festivals in New South Wales isn’t the strongest it’s ever been right now. Everything from their ostentatiously geeky art rock aesthetic to the five-member set-up of the band screams Devo, or perhaps The B-52s. After building a strong following through some memorable live performances throughout Melbourne, the band has put out their unabashedly off-kilter self-titled debut.
We got our first proper taste of the record last year when the band dropped the album’s lead single, Right Swipe. The synth-driven exploration into internet dating in this strange new world many of their influences may have foretold is a gloriously weird, albeit irresistibly catchy track, that could quite easily slip and slide right into playlists.
The performance of vocalist Lachlan Kenny on this and every song on the whole album is idiosyncratic and charismatic. Fronting a band as qurikily leftfield as U-Bahn is something few can pull off, and he does a fine job of it. Instrumentally, the jagged and disjointed guitar licks across the project are a standout, and then you have Zoe Monk, who is not only impressive on synths, but also wrangling some of the samples which really solidify the group’s strange aesthetic.
Given their influences, it should be unsurprising that themes like those of the track Bourgeois make an appearance on this album. However, a lot of these familiar themes are repackaged quite thoughtfully for the modern era, like the tongue-in-cheek lamentation of being a beta male on the album opener Beta Boyz.
The middle of the album is tied together by three raunchy tracks, which quite brilliantly ends with a track titled Goodbye Placenta. The song Damp Sheets, which has become a live show favourite, kicks off this steamy section of the album, and is one of the most bizarre numbers on the project. The first half of the song is a collage of samples as the band jams in the background. While this seems to linger a bit, some of the sample choices are laugh-out-loud funny and manage to keep it entertaining.
The album closes on a high with Time Warps Makes The Sweetest Sound. The band recall Yellow Magic Orchestra with some clever samples which sound like they come straight out of '80's 8-bit video games in the first half of the track. At the midpoint it begins to drift into a dreamy decline, centred around a mellotron and coruscating keys.
U-Bahn manage to do a really good job of harnessing what made bands like Devo great, while still sounding fresh, and like they’re brining something new to the table. It’s fair to say that modern society, with its macho world leaders and bro culture under the microscope, gives them plenty of thematic ammunition. It’s exciting to see where they go from here. To borrow from Right Swipe: this project has enough going for it to justify giving U-Bahn a super like on Tinder without even pretending it was an accident.
- Jack Jones.