‘All of life, it happens here, in the light outside of the Spar, across the road, the neon sign for Leisureland still glows, they forgot to turn it off, when it closed’ (Leisureland)

There are many ways to tell a story.  The linear – you know beginning, middle, end.  Or you can take a more interwoven route to exploring the origins and consequences of an idea.  It is this latter approach that Neutrals take on this, their second full-length, and follow-up to 2022’s Bus Nights EP.

The starting concept for the album is the ‘new towns’ that were constructed in the UK during the 1950s and 1960s, many being overspill estates adjacent to major cities.  And, while by the 1980s, many of these cities from London to Liverpool were in a febrile state, the new towns had often become bywords for a more attritional, isolated social alienation.

Now, I know what your thinking – why would a band based in California’s Bay Area be concerning themselves with UK new towns?  All will become clear though as the vocals – a soft, broad Scottish brogue – appear, interlaced with a very British indie punk of bright, sharp guitars, with just a shimmer of jangle, underpinned by a sprightly, limber rhythm section and harmonised backing vocals.

The album unfolds through a rich tableau of short stories, each loosely inspired by real life news stories from the era, expertly evoking a sense of both time and place.  After the sample-led title track, the regret-tinged Wish You Were Here is a tale of a Spanish holiday romance, while the stridently robust Stop The Bypass remembers the widespread environmental protests against road expansion schemes, and the surging Last Orders is a tale of volatile, headstrong friendship.

Side Two sees the jaunty The Iron That Never Swung tell the bizarre story of the golf club without a course, before segueing into the pulsing electronics, spoken word, and haunting choral crescendo of ‘another paunchy middle-aged raver’ on How Did I Get Here.  The album closes on the spikily infectious, tightly crafted Substitute Teacher and Phantom Arcade, a darkly comedic tale of stolen arcade games, copper theft, and an unfortunately timed demolition.

And as with all social historical excavations, the album also casts light on how little has changed.  Politicians still tout new towns as a panacea to a housing shortage created by their policies, communities are still compelled to fight council attempts to drive them from their homes in the name of ‘progress’, and we still work remarkably hard to make sure that the young have nowhere to go but the corner outside the local Spar.