About

Dedicated to the power of pop music, Sobs are Singapore’s premier indiepop propagandists. After releasing a breakout bedroom pop EP Catflap and a dream-jangle LP Telltale Signs that brought international embrace, Sobs now assemble a front-to-back indiepop behemoth – Air Guitar – after a much anticipated three-year wait.

A thirty-minute trip for the post-Internet consumer, Air Guitar calibrates inventive pop hooks for the indie rock lover, instantly accessible yet intricately arranged. The album draws a line through the history of pop stylistics from 80s new wave "Last Resort" and 90s power-pop "Burn Book" to 00s sk8er punk and radio pop "Air Guitar". Further informed by the cosmopolitan, culturally astute ethos of PC Music – Sobs connects the uptempo of Shibuya’s Advantage Lucy "Lucked Out", heart-on-sleeve indie rock of Bettie Serveert and Big Star "World Implode", with the eclecticism of New York’s Darla Records "Friday Night" to define the pulse of indiepop then and now. — (via Label)

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Sobs’ second album, Air Guitar (and their first for U.S. indie rock label Topshelf Records), is a full-fledged realization of those pop aspirations. During a period of burnout in the four years since Telltale Signs, vocalist Celine Autumn briefly stepped away from her guitar and instead embraced the effervescence of hyperpop. Although guitarists Jared Lim and Raphael Ong had brought some sheen to Sobs’ music in the past, Autumn’s self-titled solo EP as Cayenne was pure pop gloss. Co-produced with Lim, Cayenne was a sugar rush, replete with carbonated synths, glitchy distortion, and magnetic hooks. Sobs blend that same fizzy pop production with their summery indie rock on Air Guitar—the album glitters without blunting the trio’s sharp edge.

Bedroom pop’s intimate sensibilities still inform Sobs’ lyrics. Across the record, Autumn plays a passive character, trapped in a relationship that should have ended long ago. On the bright bubble-grunge of the title track, she comes to grips with the romance’s shortcomings: “Your lips don’t taste the same, you’re no longer mine/You’re not worthy of the fight,” she professes. Gutless to properly end things, the song buries its remaining sheepish confessions like whispers under a distorted guitar. The spirited guitar line at the end of the song makes Autumn’s last attempt at escape feel even more momentous, despite her resignation. “Friday Night” recounts a similar predicament: Autumn drifts through a cramped house party, her nervousness fading to disappointment as she laments yet another emotionally unavailable partner. In a flash, “Friday Night” conceals her despair as the saccharine power pop transforms into an electric drum’n’bass breakdown.

One painful realization after another, Air Guitar is candy-coated without dulling the pain of heartbreak. If Autumn isn’t surrendering to the reality of an absent and thoughtless partner, then she’s helplessly pleading for someone more reliable. “Please don’t call me back, ‘cause I don’t want to hurt you,” she begs on “LOML,” exhausted from the fatigue and uncertainty. But there are also clear moments that disavow that pessimism, like the earnest and tender power pop of “World Implode.” Sobs translate the cyclical feeling of falling and out of love into gleaming, guitar-led confections across Air Guitar, exuberantly delivering on the promise of going big. — (via Pitchfork)

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- Reissued on "Temporary Bliss" Red + White vinyl
- Includes lossless audio download

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Label: Topshelf Records
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Temporary Bliss
Reissued: 2023 / Originally Released: 2022
Genre: Rock, Pop
Style: Indie Pop, Indie Rock

File under: Singapore Titles
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