polaroids of androids

Strip away the novelty kookiness of this ten piece Sydney band and you are left with songs that either brilliantly encapsulate the fun side of music that is often missed by newly formed acts or sound like simply rehashed guitar strokes and modern nursery rhymes.

The opening number, Sex Is Not Everything, is one of the clear album highlights. The flashes of emotion and often over-theatrical vocals, the occasional rising moments and the tongue in cheek nature of the track all come together perfectly. Red Frogs changes plans - blending crunchy guitars in the intro with the harmonic six-piece all girl choir chorus. It's this contrast where Cuthbert really seem to make the transition from being a band that is interesting because of their unusual line-up structure to being a band that is genuinely putting something different out there. The nature of fun and, for lack of a better word, stupidness of these songs is one of the key elements that earn this album repeat listens. Newtown (La La La), although slightly cringe-worthy after a couple of listens, plays fantastically on the cliched view of the inner-west suburb. Other catchy numbers such as University, which captures the squandering of time at higher education, and the more uptempo Telephone are also extremely hard to dislike.

The filler of this album is mostly in the middle section where the Night Walkers seem to go out for a takeaway lunch and leave Cuthbert to knock out a couple of songs by himself. Maybe in a few years time this will be the kind of thing that will break up their sound nicely, but at the moment these more solo moments pail in comparison to the occasions where the full barrage of choirs and band are put forward. The brilliant flashes on this album come about when caution is thrown to the wind and a million ideas are channeled into the form of well constructed pop songs.

Love Needs Us in many ways is very much like Richard In Your Mind's recent debut release. It replaces the acid-tripped soundscapes with choirs and nicely overdone dramatic climaxes, but the idea of fun is still very much at the forefront. We need local music like this. We need music to be fun again, free from the bullshit image and stupid pre-defined genres that this country - and more precisely Sydney - seems to often get drowned in. We all know that the timing of a sound is often just as important as the sound itself. In that regard, Cuthbert and the Night Walkers could be one of the best things to hit this town in some time.

Hopefully, they build on this promising debut, continue to develop their sound and not start taking themselves seriously anytime soon.