Album review: Superlove – Colours

On first listen, the debut full-length from Superlove is baffling. On second listen, these bloated songs are just irritating. That multi-instrumentalist duo Jacob Rice and Jonathan Worgan self-produced Colours makes sense – they’ve crammed so many ideas into each track it feels like no-one else was around to ask whether they should.

The songs here tend to fall into two camps: incessantly hyperactive (World Of Wonder) or nauseatingly sweet (Yours, Bestfriend). wanna luv u takes the worst of both worlds, pinballing between bubblegum vocals, heavy guitars and glitchy samples until it sounds like a trifle made by a punch-drunk orangutan. It doesn’t help that Jacob’s wailing is mawkishly sincere during Baby Bird, which couldn’t sound more Disney-esque if it featured literal bird chirps. Oh wait, it does.

The irony is that Superlove’s genre-clashing would have more impact if they reined themselves in. If You Could, Would You has some fine moments, verses that sparkle like summer nights at a fairground segueing into festival ready choruses. But then they drag it out for six minutes with more endings than The Return Of The King. A ripping guitar solo. Huge chorus. Quiet piano coda. Another chorus. The same piano outro. They just can’t seem to help themselves.

At the heart of Colours is an earnest duo buzzing with ideas and energy. But just like a big palette of colours, by smooshing everything together without restraint Superlove have ended up with a very unpleasant shade of brown.

Verdict: 2/5

For fans of: Don Broco, Issues, Lower Than Atlantis

Colours is out now via Rude Records