2k12 has thrown up some brilliant albums thus far, a couple of which have stamped their sound all over the year and have made a monumental impact on the sound of now. The first album to fall into this category was the shot of adrenaline to rock music from Japandroids, with their incredible and unrelenting Celebration Rock LP and the second was the futuristic pop stylings of Purity Ring’s Shrines. The third album to yield such replay value as the aforementioned LPs has been Paws debut album Cokefloat. An album that’s as angst riddled and beer drenched as it is tender and heart-warming.

Cokefloat kicks off with Catherine 1956 which charts the memories of singer Philip Taylor’s memories of his mother, it’s a song that both cherishes without lamenting and moves forward on her wise words of advice, “It’s the only certain thing in this life, so be a big boy because life goes on”. It sounds like punk but without the abnoxious attitude, opting instead punchy yet heart-warming eulogy. There are other similar moments of warmth on the record, most notably the single acoustic offering, Get Bent, which not quite the archetypal break-up song wallowing in self pity, more a list of reasons why it’s over and it being over is alright because you suck, “If you don’t know my favourite food or animal, how can I depend on you?”.

If the more considered moments are where the album sticks it’s the full throttle punk-rock tracks where the album really asserts itself for consideration in the fist place. Tracks like Jellyfish, Bloodline, Boregasm and Miss American Bookworm are where the easy entry points lie, those moments where you throw your arms in the air and get loose and let the angst out. But they’re perfectly weighted against a wealth of sonic alternatives to the typical punk sound, there are echoes of indie and grunge all over the place and the appearance of Big Deal’s Alice Costelloe on single Sore Tummy is an almost heavenly moment of refrain around the mid-way point, before exploding into burst of discordant guitars.

The overall thing about Cokefloat, and probably the reason I’ve given it so many listens over the last few months is that it’s an album that never gets boring, it swings succinctly between so many different ‘moments’ but without ever sounding like anything but itself. Like a Paws record and every moment is unmissable.

Cokefloat is released 8th October on FatCat Records

PAWS play the Shacklewell Arms in London on 16 October, with tickets available for free.

Marcus Harris

This entry was tagged as album reviews, FatCat, paws.