For a brief period of time in the distant 2010s, a raft of east London bands centered around the Shacklewell Arms. Bands like Male Bonding, Veronica Falls, and Summer Camp produced reverb-heavy songs, full of melody; co-ed harmonies with echoes of darkness.
Montevideo are a Toulouse-based band who sound like they came across an old YouTube playlist of those bands playing at the Shacklewell Arms. It’s nice, as we get older, to be reminded that music is meant to be fun. That it is meant to get you tapping your feet, maybe getting up and dancing in your kitchen on a Tuesday morning before 8am. Maybe that was just me.
Their latest single, Brawn, offers a takedown of Third Space performative gym culture and the pressure to conform.
Arms, abs, thighs, don’t know where to start
Oil on brawn, it takes all my weeks, I’ve stopped stupid drinking
Legs, hands, calf, I’ve worked but it does hurt- so – much
Gave up on my friends, need muscles before it ends
The songwriting draws on classic indie references like Art Brut and The Rakes. Wise enough to gently skewer themselves rather than being too mean about the world around them.
Listen: Brawn – Montevideo
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