Delivery move beyond the sardonic with debut album ‘Forever Giving Handshakes’
Melbourne punks Delivery have dropped their debut album Forever Giving Handshakes, on which they attempt to take the typically sardonic recent sound of post-punk and flip it on its head, returning a sense of light-heartedness to a genre utterly dominated by an overwhelmingly dour sense of seriousness. The album is out now on Feel It Records.
The album opens with arguably its two strongest tracks, ‘Picture This’ and ‘Poor-to-Middling Moneymaking’. The former encapsulates the spirited build-up of the best moments of Interpol, although with an unbridled sense of Australian joy. Television-esque guitar riffs litter the track, persistently dragging us across its four minutes in a contented style of confusion.
As for its follow-up, it would not sound amiss on several of the nostalgic garage-rock records of the 2000s, such as those of Maximo Park, Louis XIV and The Hives. Evidently, Delivery had grown tired of the contemporary post-punk movement taking itself a bit too seriously, and like Dry Cleaning, there are elements of humour throughout the record, although without the south-London band’s more patient nuance.
In fact, ‘Poor-to-Middling Moneymaking’ was the first ever Delivery song. Singer James Lynch said of the track, “It’s a funny song lyrically because when I was writing it, I couldn’t quite decide which perspective I fully agreed with. It’s about creativity vs conventional work. I like the idea that creative things should be able to exist around the structure of normal life, and I don’t really like the idea of a high and mighty artisté who simply can’t conform to regular work. That said, it’s also about commodifying creativity to sell a product. Yikes.”
What’s constantly refreshing throughout Forever Giving Handshakes is the switch between Lynch’s vocals and his co-vocalist, Rebecca Allan. Allan’s vocals are in particularly fine form, especially so on ‘Wear It Well’, while James’ can occasionally mimic Parquet Courts’ Andrew Savage – although, given the style of the record, this is more than understandable.
Elsewhere on the record, the tracks can border on the occasionally irritating, such as on the rather messy lead single ‘Baader Meinhof’, which features a particularly grating Dandy Warhols-like keyboard. And that’s largely what can let Forever Giving Handshakes down on occasion, just too much instrumentation at once.
One of the finest efforts comes right at its end. ‘Best Western’ is Delivery’s ‘Only In Dreams’ moment, although its place on the tracklist can kind of feel that it has come to a touch too late. Then again, it may just serve as a clue as to where Delivery may head next, perhaps taking out a bit of that self-indulgent instrumentation and allowing their apparent talents to flourish in their own rights.
There are evidently some excellent songs on the album and some admirable playing, although the melodies are not always given enough room to breathe in the same way that the slightly mellower fellow Aussies Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever allow. Having said that, Delivery’s debut is a fine first effort and is a welcome fun-inducing addition to an ever-serious post-punk landscape.
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