Let's Wrestle | Nursing Home

Merge (2011)
By GARRETT MARTIN  |  June 22, 2011
3.0 3.0 Stars

lets wrestle main

Let's Wrestle are another pack of young British guitar owners, and although they haven't crafted much of an identity outside of being amiable wiseasses, that's all you need if your songs are catchy enough. This kind of noisy, overdriven, guitar-heavy pop music is hardly confined to any era, but if Nursing Home came out in '92 or '93 — during that brief window when major labels let their guards down and signed legitimately good bands in a desperate search for the next Nirvana — they would've gotten at least as much radio play as Eugenius or Teenage Fanclub. Lyrically, Nursing Home combines the intelligent snark of Art Brut and the teenage fixation of "Blue Album"–era Weezer with songs about playing computer games in the suburbs and hanging out with friends. The production from Steve Albini ensures that it's not too slick or processed. These short, humble pop songs amble along like the Wedding Present if David Gedge had a wrist injury that cut his inhuman strumming speed in half.
Related: The Sounds | Something To Die For, Crystal Stilts | In Love With Oblivion, Atari Teenage Riot | Is This Hyperreal?, More more >
  Topics: CD Reviews , Music, Steve Albini, CD reviews,  More more >
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