It is easy for a music lover’s enthusiasm to dwindle when a bunch of up-and-comers hailed as “the next big thing” end up unraveling into something that we’ve all heard before. In a sea of Vampire Weekend and Arctic Monkeys clones, new bands worth getting excited about are increasingly hard to come by.
However, Melbourne’s homegrown Ceres and their brand of indie rock perfectly captures the feeling of their suburban hometown, and while I Don’t Want To Be Anywhere But Here maintains easy commercial appeal, the straight-up, no bull approach is a welcome breath of fresh air.
On paper, the group may not sound radically different from their counterparts, but they manage to evoke a tremendous sense of atmosphere throughout the album’s ten tracks.
Vocalist Tom Lanyon’s thick Aussie accent ploughs through the likes of ‘Trying To Keep You’ and ‘Middle Names’. In fact, the delivery of the latter’s chorus is enough to stay with you long after the song is over.
The band’s main selling point is their unadulterated nature, forgoing a spit-polish sound and instead promoting imperfection and common blemishes (opener ‘Jam Song’ starts the record with a cough, of all things). Moreover, the four-piece make no attempt to inhibit or compromise their sound in order to maintain a certain stylistic window.
Ceres aren’t necessarily reinventing the indie-rock genre, but the passionate delivery makes their first LP a fun, joyous, and remarkable listen, especially when taken from such humble beginnings.
Listen to ‘Middles Names’ from I Don’t Want To Be Anywhere But Here here:
