Regal Cheer
Quite Good
UGLY TWIN
Cheers to Regal Cheer for summing up their new record in two words, courtesy of its title. But to elaborate a bit: Quite Good is a jolt of punk-rock beauty, blissfully shambolic from start to finish. The essence of the record is found—well, in every track, certainly, but none more so than the second song, “Narrow.” “You want something new? Let’s keep it on the straight and narrow,” co-vocalists Max Cleworth and Harry Menear chant in their prominent British accents as Cleworth plucks away at electric guitar and Menear inexactly pounds the drums.
Indeed, the sophomore album by the lovable Brighton duo is pure heart and soul. In true punk-rock fashion, they adorned the cover of Quite Good with a graphic depicting two-and-a-half out of five stars scribbled in—something of a callback to Sub Pop Records’ “Loser” sloganeering of the mid-’90s. Regal Cheer bill themselves as “short attention span” music, and while that term does apply to punk at large, this passionate platter of 12 songs captures the essence of the genre in a way that only—to cop a term from metalheads—“true” bands are able to do. It’s on the record’s seventh track, “The Ride,” that they’re at their deliberately sloppiest and, seemingly, most endearing. With out-of-sync drums framing the song, it’s as if the band is begging to be loved in its worst condition.
But then comes “Be the Same” and its barrage of sincerity: “Seamlessly, like the tides going out / To start making more waves / It’s straight to the point and subtly / I wish I could be the same / Ah, hell, it’s probably just as well / Ah, hell, we struggle in the swell.” And, shortly after that, “The Queue,” which beats out the rest for the most sincere track on the record. With a guest-singing spot by Elise Cook of Soot Sprite, the 56-second serenade clinches the brass ring, even though three essential, thematically intertwined songs—the gleefully tumultuous “Slalom Gates,” the exuberant “Snowball,” and the catchy-as-hell “Cyclical”—cap off the listen. “Keep your head down,” they sing on that penultimate track, and one can’t help but think that was Regal Cheer’s mantra as they crafted this gem of a record.
