When listening to pop duo All Tvvins you’d be forgiven for thinking that they’d always been in pop bands. Their music is full of references about the darker side of relationships, but also hints that things do get better and all you need is a little faith and self-belief to make it happen, whilst being covered in glitter and DayGlo paint. But dig a little deeper and you realise that Lar Kaye and Conor Adams have more musical experience than their youthful faces show. Both have cut their teeth in multiple bands, Kaye in post-rock Adebisi Shank, and Adams the singer in math-rock group Cast of Cheers, before they decided to join forces and try and take over the world, one pop song at the time. Looking at their previous bands it’s almost unfathomable that they are now in an indie-pop band that makes big, bright and bold pop bangers, rather than the unfathomably complex and intricate post-math bands that they originally found themselves in. Once you listen to their debut album IIVV, however, you can start to see their past immerging.

‘Thank You’ is chocked full of ad-hoc guitar riffs and solos that would give Omar Rodriguez-Lopez a headache. Juxtapose that with the pop back track, and positive sounding lyrics and you have something interesting on your hands. ‘Too Young to Live’ and ‘Darkest Ocean’ follow this pattern. ‘Darkest Ocean’ is the XXX. Lyrics like, “Do yourself a fucking favour / Build yourself a boat / Hold your breath and reach the top / I know that you’ll float” offer a level of positive abstraction that only pop songs ever achieve. Everything sounds immediate and massive, yet there is an aching melancholy bubbling under trying to break free from the glitter and gold.

Recent single ‘These 4 Words’ kicks off with a bright and breeze beat and loops, this is easily the most pop thing they’ve release to date. The chorus has that rising euphoric thing that is really popular at the moment and the music sounds immediate, like you can only enjoy it for a split second then it’s gone into the ether, you know like snowflakes and a good laugh. There isn’t really much going at the moment that deviates from the verse-chorus-verse formula, but that’s all pop music, right? And that’s why pop music is fun, right? Because of the lack of change and happy-go-lucky under-current. Harold Pinter to music this ain’t!

The main problem with IIVV is that over half of the songs were previously released and the new songs, well, they aren’t as good so the album doesn’t really flow. Instead it stops and starts and never gets going. However when it does, the songs are good and filled with the kind of euphoria that is prevalent in pop at the moment. Expect All Tvvins IIVV to soundtrack all your shopping experiences, cocktail excursions, walks along the beach and BBQ’s. Basically this album has the capacity to be everywhere, all the time! I just hope you don’t get bored of it, otherwise it’ll be a very long summer indeed.
Nick Roseblade

Website: alltvvins.com
Facebook: facebook.com/alltvvins
Twitter: twitter.com/alltvvins