If you talk to anyone who was there at the time, you’ll find that twee pop1 never really went away. The genre’s oft-quoted touchstones – Sarah Records2 and the NME’s C86 compilation – are still discussed with cultish reverence by fans who came of age towards the end of the 80s, and the continued popularity of later bands like Belle and Sebastian and Los Campesinos! is proof of a lasting appeal that stretches beyond a single generation or moment in time. The scene experienced a brief moment of greater visibility in 2022, partly thanks to boom-bust trending patterns prevalent on TikTok, but beneath the fashion-forward, social media-savvy surface, twee pop has continued to grow and evolve.
Lande Hekt, whose second album House Without a View (2022) coincided with that recent boom, represents the most potent of the genre’s recent evolutions. The influence of Sarah looms large over Hekt, but where bands like the Field Mice tended towards introspection and melancholy, Hekt’s emotional range is wider. Yes, there are moments on her new album Lucky Now that would make the perfect soundtrack to staring out of your window on a rainy Sunday afternoon or a moonlit night (witness the soft strums and subtle banjo of Middle of the Night, which recalls bookish revivalists Tompaulin’s move towards country), but largely the album is characterised by a lyrical and melodic joie de vivre.
She is, in a sense, an heir to both Amelia Fletcher and Bobby Wratten, the twin deities of twee, one representing punkish, politically engaged poptimism, and the other a lovelorn laureate of damp streets and dashed hopes. But Hekt works in three dimensions, bulking out the formula with the peppiness of the Sugarcubes and Altered Images, the crunch of 90s alt-rockers Throwing Muses. Her political side emerges on Circular, which comments with a combination of anger and resignation on the way the state erodes personal freedoms, while a faintly distorted electric guitar adds welcome snarl to the chorus, and on Submarine, which advocates a much-needed break from technology and features a gorgeously folky acoustic guitar break. The poppiness is most evident on songs like Favourite Pair of Shoes and the sparkling title track, which channels the melodicism of Bristol favourites The Sundays. All these elements are synthesised in A Million Broken Hearts, a potent message delivered in a package of bubblegum harmonics but never losing its sharpness.
The clean production courtesy of Matthew Simms gives Hekt’s distinctive vocals ample room. Kitchen II is a sweetly sung paean to hard-won domesticity, while the fittingly bouncy Rabbits lets the various musical elements (loping bass, probing drums, chiming guitar) speak for themselves. There is a pleasing contrast between percussive punch and melodic jangle throughout, and when the harmonies kick in, as they do on The Sky, the album begins to approach pop perfection.
They are exquisitely crafted three-minute wonders, small gems that refract sunlight in unexpected ways, with enough of a bite to keep you on your toes.
Though there is an assumption of naivety where this kind of music is concerned, Hekt’s songs are more sophisticated than precursors like Young Marble Giants or Marine Girls. They are exquisitely crafted three-minute wonders, small gems that refract sunlight in unexpected ways, with enough of a bite to keep you on your toes. Lucky Now is the sound of Hekt maturing into a highly individual and accomplished artist without losing sight of her influences.
Source: klofmag.com