Van Houten offer up their heavier side on ‘Only Wanna Be With You’
There must be something in the water over in Leeds at the moment. While it’s always been an underrated music city, lately, it’s refusing to be ignored as it gifts us some of the most exciting new bands around. English Teacher, Green Gardens, Treeboy & Arc and Far Caspian are among them, but with every new track, we’re most excited about Van Houten.
As they race towards the release of their debut album, The Tallest Room, next month, they’re on a run of golden singles. ‘Coming Of Age’ delivered on jangly optimism while ‘Never Did Come Back’ proved their expansive abilities and cinematic scope. The latest, ‘Only Wanna Be With You’, offers up a heavier side as the band kicks into a grungier gear.
Coming in at under two minutes, it would be easy for the track to feel limp or be lost as album filler. But the band makes the point that it’s always quality over quantity and packs a real punch in the short run time. All centred around a huge guitar breakdown in the final third. It’s a song that begs to be heard live or at least played loud.
That’s what makes Van Houten so exciting. For a while, they’ve been utterly impossible to label. When diving back into their discography, there are strains of shoegaze, Mac DeMarco-esque slacker rock, outright indie and beyond.
On the three songs we’ve heard so far from the album, they’re exploring all corners of the huge umbrella term of ‘alternative’ and seemingly following whatever they fancy rather than being forced to commit to one near package. ‘Only Wanna Be With You’ continues that, adding a rockier element to their range.
When you listen to the track on Spotify, and it immediately leads into ‘Coming Of Age’, the two very different songs seem to transition perfectly. While the songs are separated on the album tracklist, this little observation is perfect proof that a band can do it all while still maintaining a clear identity and musical throughpath. Variety and range don’t have to be jarring or disjointed.
Instead, ‘Only Wanna Be With You’ sits as another great addition to a beautifully explorative discography that’s really only in its infancy.
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