My Captain is the new album from Dublin four-piece New Amusement (Darragh Clabby, Brian Molloy, Alan Power, Frankie Whelan). Due for release on October 8th, it’s the first album from the band whose 2008 debut EP Any Port in a Storm earned them a set at Oxegen as well as support slots for Vampire Weekend and Nada Surf. Listening to the album, it really doesn’t feel like a debut album. It’s incredibly polished with some very sophisticated production and incredibly catchy riffs.

The songs all have a very different vibe but the album flows seamlessly between tracks. It slows down briefly for Tight Lines but and the musical interlude Volga Tattered Steps, but it’s otherwise choc-full of relentlessly catchy indie anthems. It’s not self indulgent, there are no twenty minute guitar solos or no “experimental” sound effects, there are just really good songs, brilliantly arranged.

The band spent most of 2009 writing and preparing the album before recording it in K9 studios in Dublin at the end of the year.
 

The album kicks off with Jamboree, an incredibly catchy song. It draws you into the album straight away, starting quiet and slow and quickly building up and gaining momentum. It’s loud and the kind of song you really can’t help tapping along to. The vocals are loud and aggressive without being shouty or annoying. Simple guitars over rolling drums.

In Patient Flight begins with an arpeggiated guitar riff that reminded me a little of the intro to Blink 182’s What’s My Age Again? I really liked the lyrics for this song too, they had a nice flow, which gave the impression that they weren’t just shoe horned in but very carefully thought out

The third track, Volga Tattered Steps is where the album really slows down. The 2 minute interlude sets the album up really nicely for the fourth track Fiction which is really upt-empo and catchy with its uninhibited drums and catchy guitars. It reminded me a bit of The Magic Numbers.

Speaking about their debut Ep in 2008 the band said that they had been “obsessed with At the Drive-in” which influenced their earlier sound heavily. “There was a lot of shouting & noisy amelodic guitars but it was a bit ridiculous to be honest. I think that taught us not to let any one band have such a big influence on us & just let 'the sound' come naturally.” Ahead of the completcion of My Captain they had said they were hoping to capture a more natural sound as opposed to the clean, produced feel of their 2008 EP.
 

The album will be officially released on October 8th with a launch party in Whelans on the 16th with support from Hello Moon and Squarehead. They also have a number of upcoming shows:
 

Thursday October 7th - The Grand Social, Dublin

Thursday October 14th - Tower Records, Dublin

Tuesday November 2nd - Cypress Avenue, Cork

Saturday November 13th - Stables, Mullingar

Friday November 19th - Debarrass, Clonakilty, Cork

Thursday November 25th - Dolan's, Limerick

Friday November 26th - Sky and the Ground, Wexford

Thursday December 2nd - Roisin Dubh, Galway              Jane Ward