Album Review: Helen Love - "This Is My World"

 

Scary to think that Helen Love are now approaching 30 years together as a band. There was a time for about five minutes in 1997 or so when they were briefly threatening to be the next "big thing" with both John Peel and Steve Lamacq championing their singles only to torpedo their career in fine self-sabotaging style with the scathing anti-Britpop single Long Live The UK Music Scene.

Not that it stopped them - they simply continued merrily on their way on the minors with a series of albums with This Is My World being no less than either their fifth or eighth (depending on whether you're counting their three EP compilations). And it finds the band in, if not a more grown-up (let's be honest, if they did that it'd arguably spoil everything that makes them such a great band) then certainly a more reflective mood with Helen, Sheena and Ricardo looking back at a life lived as an indie circuit band in Swansea.

And I'm gonna come straight to the point here, they've absolutely aced it. There's a lovely warm glow to these odes to teenage nostalgia. It's looking back with fondness but rarely sadness (with the exception of the genuinely heartbreaking and lovely Our House and Clearing Out Mum's House which you would have to have a heart of stone not to feel a bit of a lump come to your throat to) with the likes of My Seaside Town, Go-Kart, Let The Sunshine In and the title track being pure string-soaked pop joy while Our House and A Quite Good Time are a gentle and wistful look back at the good times and wishing they'd lasted a bit longer but at the same time appreciating that you were still lucky to have them. Similarly, First Day Of June sees Helen dispensing some advice to her daughter in a touching but incredibly catchy pop song. Not an easy trick to pull off and all the better for it.

With laughter, tears and some great songs in here, Helen Love have genuinely delivered their masterpiece here and I honestly can't recommend this album strongly enough. Sure, it's easy enough to say with just one twelfth of the year gone that this has gone to the front of our Album of the Year 2022 list but trust me, it's going to take something pretty damn amazing to dislodge it from there. Seems that good things really do come to those who wait.

Bandcamp Link

NITE SONGS RATING: 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑 (9/10)

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