Always Tomorrow by Wild Smiles (Album)

‘Always Tomorrow’ sees Wild Smiles announcing themselves as a band very much of now.

The energetic punk trio Wild Smiles have finally released their debut album, and it’s replete with buzzsaw guitar pop excellence

ailing from England’s original capital, Winchester, upstarts Wild Smiles look to capitalise on the glittering revival of 80s indie-pop and 90s indie-rock with the release of their fittingly entitled debut album Always Tomorrow.

First off the bat is the buzzing fuzz-pop of Fool For You. Released as a single in June, the song is an amalgam of the The Buzzcocks’ speed, The Soup Dragons’ candy cane exuberance and The Jesus And Mary Chain’s drowning-in-a-teacup pop sobriety. It sets the scene expertly, with the remaining ten tracks staying faithful to the impressive sway of those three bands, with the J&MC-esque Everyone’s The Same, the C86 purity of Girlfriend and the Buzzcocksian zip of Figure It Out among the album’s finest moments.

Unlike many of Wild Smiles’ peers, Always Tomorrow is consistent rather than derivative. Though happy to add brushes of quality from other greats of the 80s and 90s – with See You Again recalling The Primitives’ Dumb & Dumber-featured Crash, and I’m Gone a brilliantly grungey number – it remains faithful to the famous three of pop-punk, indie-pop and C86, and as such true to itself. Always Tomorrow is a debut that’s bristling with pop nuggets wrapped lovingly in thick blankets of distortion.

Verdict: Fizzing pop marvels

Damien Girling

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