Not every band from Glasgow is automatically good, but the city sure keeps testing that theory. Enter U.S. Highball, the duo of James Hindle and Calvin Halliday, who just dropped their fifth album and continue to make guitar pop that is dangerously easy to like.
Seriously, these songs are a total breeze. Breezy in the best possible sense too, effortlessly melodic and casually charming. After stepping away from their previous one-album-a-year pace for a bit, the band reportedly had around forty songs to pull from for God Save the Kelvin Wheelies.
That surplus of material definitely works in the record’s favor. The whole thing just glides. There is a warmth and simplicity to U.S. Highball that feels refreshingly unbothered. Jangly guitars, bright melodies, little melancholic undercurrents, and songs that seem to arrive smiling.
And yes, the title rules too. God Save the Kelvin Wheelies is named after a long-buried skatepark in Kelvingrove Park, which somehow fits the record perfectly: nostalgic, fun, a little wistful, and built for motion.
Out now on Lame-O.
Was the name of the album influenced by last summer’s archaeological dig at the old Kelvingrove Skatepark site?