Everybody bloody loves a breakup, right? Wrong, obviously, but in the wake of one, when music so often provides definite solace, you’ve got but two auricular options: plump for the supremely melancholic (for instance, Peter Gabriel’s sublime, but every-time tear-inducing, Kate Bush-featuring Don’t Give Up), or something more optimistic, such as Californian four-piece Sweet Nobody’s necessarily spiriting Manner of Speaking.
Kicking off with tinny drum machine timbres reminiscent of The War on Drugs’ Under the Pressure, boisterous, ebullient guitars soon find themselves front and centre, before Joy Deyo’s comparably peppy lyrics come in. “It’s a dirty old trick to take someone so far/ And drop them when you’re certain that they don’t know where they are” she begins, kindling instant, distinctly traumatic memories for many, no doubt. But it’s come its uproarious chorus that, as she continues: “You tore me down, shut me up, I’m nothing to you now/ I’m just gonna collect my things, and then I’ll be going/ And in a matter of speaking, I don’t think we’ll be speaking at all”, you can’t help but feel totally compelled to look forward rather than think back, as a wry smile no doubt cracks across Deyo’s face. Thus although this one may be something of a “messy little pile” of a song, it’s certainly made a rather less “angry man” of me on this drab Monday afternoon…