VEPS start out strong on debut album ‘Oslo Park’
The world of indie rock has belonged to women for at least a decade. Consider some of the biggest names of the genre right now: Phoebe Bridgers, St. Vincent, and Mitski, to name just a few. The newest additions to the canon are incredibly strong, too, with the likes of Wet Leg, Dry Cleaning, and Horsegirl making strong names for themselves.
So, if you’re looking for a place in which the new cool indie artists are emerging, why not look for a killer women-led Norwegian band? Maybe that’s a little bit selective, but if those are your parameters, boy, do I have the band for you. Introducing the teenage heroes VEPS.
With a string of killer entry-level singles like ‘Girl on TV’ and ‘Ecstacy’, VEPS are now onto the major leagues with their debut LP, Oslo Park. Featuring unadorned guitars and ooey-gooey pop hooks at the centre of every chorus, VEPS have crafted a killer entry into the indie world at large with their debut.
There’s a little something for everyone in Oslo Park. Thorny punk, brightly-coloured pop, scratchy indie rock, and even some traces of electronica and post-punk. Do you want throat-shredding bangers? ‘His Brother’ is the answer. How about surprisingly emotional tracks? Welcome to ‘To The Bedwetters’. A classic album-ending slow jam? That will be ‘The Credits’.
What’s most impressive is how eager VEPS appear to be about crafting a quality album. These girls are clearly music nerds, formatting and sequencing their album for maximum emotional impact. That kind of expertise and attention to detail usually gets lost in the “bigger is better” mentality of modern streaming-reliant releases, but VEPS don’t seem to give a single shit about that. Instead, they’ve crafted an album that flows in a very satisfying fashion.
The only thing missing from Oslo Park is a solid sense of identity. If you’ve heard new albums from Beach Bunny, Julia Jacklin, or The Beths this year, you can pretty much get a general idea of what VEPS are going for. The good news is that VEPS are young enough and, more importantly, talented enough, to forge their own path in due time.
In the meantime, getting lost in the easy tones of songs like ‘UFO’ and ‘Crawl’ is beyond easy. If nothing else, VEPS are here to prove that unadorned rock and roll never goes out of style. In fact, Oslo Park is completely absent of dated modern production trends, leaving just the material to do the talking.
Short, sweet, and sprightly, Oslo Park is more than enough evidence to believe that VEPS have a bright future ahead of them. While it might not always hit all of its marks perfectly, Oslo Park will be essential fodder for legions of indie rock fans on the lookout for the newest acts to rise out of the woodwork. Why can’t Norway be the epicentre of a new indie explosion?
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