Porches The House

The last half-a-decade has seen Porches undergo a significant refurbishment from the intimate slacker rock of 2013’s ‘Slow Dance’. The shy, introspective, corner-of-the-room jams – gurning to their own desperation – were punched to one side with ‘Pool’. Now back with their second release on Domino in as many years, ‘The House’ sees Aaron Maine and friends plunge further into their glamorous revival. Variegated soundscapes and acutely vulnerable lyrics offer up ‘Leave The House’ and ‘Find Me’ as the PTSD dance anthems for a new world.

Still taking shelter under their self-prescribed “bummer-pop” slogan, for the first time it seems benignly truthful. Subservient romance and brooding meditation is treated with unadulterated plinkerpop and other eccentricities. It’s an accolade for a 14-track album to parade itself in the open without any filler or over-indulgence, but this is exactly what ‘The House’ does.

Each second seems thoughtfully fashioned, meticulously punctuating the highs and lows of carefree youth and drained adulthood, with voyeuristic minute-long interludes… and not your run-of-the-mill coming-of-age collection. ‘The House’ feels like Porches’ most poignant record to date.