Infinite Shuffle

I still can’t figure it out, but for some reason I’ve heard multiple references to The Wombats in the past couple of months. It’s especially odd since they haven’t released an album since April 2011 and don’t appear to be anywhere close to putting out another one.

Nevertheless, those mentions led to me listening to the Liverpool trio’s two full-length releases, so I figured I’d write a little something about them.

I was first introduced to the band several years ago through the song “Kill the Director”, which was the third single off A Guide To Love, Loss & Desperation, the band’s debut album that was released in November 2007.

As you can quickly discern, The Wombats sound like any number of indie-pop/rock bands that were coming out of the UK about 5-8 years ago. Bands such as Arctic Monkeys, The Kooks and The Fratellis, to name a few.

That’s not necessarily the band’s fault, but it does make it sound less original. Also, that whole scene doesn’t really hold up as well nearly a decade later.

That being said, all of the bands put out some good songs, The Wombats included. Other strong tunes on that first album include “Let’s Dance To Joy Division” and “Moving To New York”.

The 2011 follow-up album, This Modern Glitch, added an extra electro vibe and also produced a few good songs, such as “Jump Into the Fog”, “Tokyo (Vampires and Wolves)” and “1996”.

The band still appears to be active, and it’ll be interesting to see if/how its sound has evolved — if it ever releases another album, that is.