Twerps: Work It Out

- Melbourne four-piece Twerps might just be my current favourite Australian outfit still pumping out the jams on the reg. The jangly quartet recently sneaked and wormed their way into my heart in a major way. After a gorgeous EP that was loose, rough and charming as all hell, the group proceeded to lay down a self-titled LP, that took a little acclimatisation, but in the end took this rough, beautiful diamond of a band, blew the specks of dirt and dust off, proving to be one the most well rounded, complete and down-right enjoyable records I've heard in years. While that record is a year old now, I'm still caught up in its restrained but sea-deep emotion. A strangely reassuring, kinda upbeat melancholia that proceeds to impart some kind of quiet and unspoken wisdom to a generation of aimless wastoids and over-thinkers.
It's been a pretty killer year for Twerps since the release of that record, including a couple of trips to the U.S. which saw the four babes spread their wings, break free of the ramshackle restraints of our big, dry island and start popping up on the always troubling world of the internet, including frequent appearance on Hypetrak & Pitchfork, something that leaves me feeling neither happy nor sad, maybe just some weird middling feeling of tension / indifference. While Twerps deserve every last taste of success that they can squeeze out of life's big ol' sponge, I've got this perpetual fear of people, bands, pets, whatever getting too big for their boots and leaving me behind to take inventory of my dusty, empty life.
Despite this I'll take whatever new music Twerps will throw at me, anything at all. So when a new single slash tiny EP slash triple a-side comes striding down my way I'm probably more stoked than I should be. Accompanied with totally badass throwback cover-art, the new Work It Out record is seven whole minutes of new material, which if nothing else, is sure to leave everyone in their right minds wanting more, or as is my case, metaphorically wearing the funk out of the repeat button on iTunes. The three tracks here are more of same Twerps magic; summery, jangly pop songs with these deceptively simple guitar lines that have this nearly hypnotic effect on my whole being. The middle track off the record, "He's In Stock", is two minutes of pure Twerps joy, an upbeat, rip-roarer of a song that I've already fallen for in a bad way.

- Jay Edwards.