Wellington, New Zealand four-piece Hans Pucket writes nervy but effortlessly danceable rock songs about feeling bad. Their second full-length album, No Drama, gleefully captures the all-too-common twenty-something anxieties of talking too much and then being unable to find the right words to say. When frontman Oliver Devlin sings, “I’m surfing a constant wave of alarm” on the title track, it’s a compass for the other nine tracks.
This is inviting and relatable music for people who, despite their best efforts, feel uncomfortable about themselves, the state of the world, and their place in it. Both lyrically and sonically, No Drama is a departure for Hans Pucket from their 2018 debut Eczema. “I realised I didn’t want to write any more real heartbreak songs,” says Oliver Devlin. “We were and still are a live band. We’re still trying to make music that’s catchy and people can dance to, but also really interesting to us: songs about growing up and finding how you exist in the world.”
Songs like My Brain Is a Vacant Space with its blistering guitars and ebullient hooks hone in on the feeling that you have nothing to offer while Bankrupt, a fuzzed-out punk track, boasts lines like “I don’t know if I’ll always feel like / I don’t know what I’m doing wrong.”
Recorded with the band’s good friend and former tour mate Jonathan Pearce of The Beths at his Auckland studio, No Drama is full of big leaps, immaculate arrangements, and a ton of immediate grooves.
Tracklist
- My Brain Is A Vacant Space
- You Must Chill
- Misery Loves Company
- No Drama
- Honey
- The Square
- Some Good News
- Bankrupt
- Kiss The Moon
- Drag Me Through Your Heart
- I’m Not Opposed to
RIYL: The Beths, Vampire Weekend, Phoenix, Grizzly Bear, Built to Spill, Beirut
