ALBUM REVIEW: Colours – Superlove
Some artists spend hours, days, weeks in front of a canvas choosing a colour. Others mix and match like cauldron-wielding alchemists. And if Bristol duo SUPERLOVE were painters, they’d put all the colours of the rainbow in a bucket and pour it over themselves in a flash flood of futurist pop-art.
1 (Intro) sets out their stool as if they’re Goldilocks; stepping into rehearsal rooms that range from death metal to hyper-pop before settling on their own sound. If you don’t buckle yourself in, Colours can at times threaten to throw you through the front window. SUPERLOVE shift gears faster than the speed of light, often in the same song. Save Yourselves switches from the nu-metal crunch of BRING ME THE HORIZON’s Wonderful Life to the alt-rock pomp of Technology-era DON BROCO, whilst wanna luv you owes as much to the hyper-pop of 100 GECS and SOPHIE as it does the lo-fi synth-pop of THE 1975 and the frenetic noise-pop NOISY pedal.
When they’re firing off different flares in the same song, they sound like a flash flood of colour you want to drown in. However, when you’re moving between tracks, the split personality pacing can be discomfortingly disorienting. Individually, wanna luv you and Baby Bird are standout tracks, but back to back feels like being given odd socks by your grandma at Christmas. SUPERLOVE are at their best when they aren’t letting too many cooks spoil the broth. Bestfriend is a shot of hyper-pop serotonin that explodes in your veins, whilst World Of Wonder is a blitzkrieg blizzard of high-octane alt-rock that hits your head as hard as it does your heart. These tracks show off their ability to take simple ingredients and turn them into taste sensations.
Sometimes, they strip it back too much and simplicity stretches Colours needlessly beyond its means. Yours is the black sheep of the family, casting a cloud of bog-standard singer-songwriter MCFLY-esque balladry that brings down proceedings; The Most Important Place In The World is so stripped-back and short its lo-fi synth-pop doesn’t get a chance to begin, let alone breathe; and six-minute closer If You Could, Would You? recycles the same idea so many times you’re left wondering why it’s so long.
Whereas musically Colours is like taking a trip through Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory, it’s a lyrically stable stride through the fields of modern life. An album that owes itself to the Gen Z population, it brings both heart-on-the-sleeve and tongue-in-cheek takes on mental health, social media, and juggling relationships. Perhaps it’s the point, but Colours asks a lot of questions without giving any answers. Much like the majority of us, it searches for the simple things in life that always feel so out of grasp. The duo say it best satirically on Save Yourselves: “I’ve got a lot of fucking problems / I wanna know who’s gonna solve them? / All of my friends they don’t give a shit / They see my life and they think it’s sick / I think this world is making me ill / Watching the news I don’t know what’s real”.
Listening to Colours is like a Reading & Leeds line-up; a pop culture identity crisis on the brink of a meltdown. It’s at once a melting pot of magic and a ticking time-bomb, and if SUPERLOVE can find a happy medium in that, then they could crack the mainstream code.
Rating: 6/10
Colours is set for release on April 1st via Rude Records.
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