Beautiful People Will Ruin Your Life in Bloomington, MN

The Wombats
are the best early-'90s Brit-pop band you've never heard. At least that's the overriding vibe on their fourth studio album, 2018's
Beautiful People Will Ruin Your Life
. Produced by
Mark Crew
(
Bastille
,
Rationale
) and
Catherine Marks
the Killers
Wolf Alice
), the album features much of what has endeared the Liverpool trio to fans; especially vocalist/guitarist
Matthew Murphy
's literate, tongue-in-cheek self-awareness, which remains firmly intact. "You could give an aspirin the headache of its life," he croons on the opening "Cheetah Tongue." Musically, the band is in crisp from, delving into a swirling batch of post-punk-tinged anthems, many punctuated by
Murphy
's wiry guitars, drummer
Dan Haggis
' kinetic rhythms, and bassist
Tord Overland-Knudsen
's driving, club-ready bass grooves. On the best of these tracks,
the Wombats
excel, delivering psychedelia-infused jams that are equal parts
White Album
-era
Beatles
and
Modern Life Is Rubbish
Blur
. That "Dip You in Honey" sounds like
XTC
doing a mash-up of
the Beatles
' "Tomorrow Never Knows" and
Roxette
's "The Look" feels utterly, divinely intentional. Elsewhere, "Cheetah Tongue" borrows from
U2
's
Achtung Baby
, much in the same way
borrowed from their Madchester contemporaries back in the '90s. Similarly, tracks like "Lemon to a Knife Fight" and "Black Flamingo" have a punky, off-kilter, new wave vibe that brings
the Pixies
to mind. ~ Matt Collar