I don’t really know where you’ve been if you haven’t heard of these guys. But no matter lost souls, Peace are back this year with the follow up to their debut album ‘In Love’. They’re a band representing a lot of good stuff: Birmingham (my home town), tie dye, wearing fur coats and not cutting your hair. Oh, and some really clever, melodic indie rock that’s so escapist you’ll wonder how they ever found the time to write any music down between being cool and…being really cool.
As a side note, it seems to me that indie music gets more and more of a bad press lately. You listen to The Smiths? How contrived. Is that The Cure on your t-shirt? Bet you only started listening to them last week. Anyone who says such stuff is usually wrong. Indie music will never be contrived if you appreciate why it’s actually really good: skilled writing (which I didn’t really, dancing round my room to The Smiths aged five.) The genre’s been coined as an elitist, pretentious one that should be left for brainless tumblr types to listen to whilst doing whatever brainless tumblr types do. Forget this, please.
Peace are a fine example of why indie music is a genre that isn’t just based on image, no matter how many snide comments are made by people who prefer house music or Mumford and his boring Sons. Peace, in contrast, write sophisticated yet youthful lyrics and make clever music, incorporating a more grungy sound circa 70s rock into crisper modern indie pop that oozes effortless cool. I get the feeling they never set out to stick to one genre; they just do what sounds good. “I genuinely think that bands should stop focusing on themselves as a brand and concentrate on making music” lead singer Harry Koisser told Gigwise. “Music…it makes people feel things, and [that’s] why we do it.” Too right.
Stand out tracks from 2013’s ‘In Love’ include the well-known, sparklingly danceable ‘Bloodshake’ and the super-chilled ‘Float Forever’- a perfect little anthem that calls for hand holding and swaying, featuring arguably their best lyric (“If you’re not happy wearing denim you’re a devil in disguise”.) Thus far, we’ve only been allowed access to one track off the new album, ‘World Pleasure’, out later this year, and I personally think it sounds even better than their previous stuff. Koisser essentially raps in a Damon Albarn style drawl that exudes even more care-free cool than what we’ve heard before.
They’ve got a careful craft going, making their music as simultaneously sugar sweet, intelligent and honest as they do. Buzzkillers will say they’re nothing special for indie music; a bunch of guys singing about hopeless crushes and not wanting to get up in the morning. Ah, however- that’s what we all secretly like, I think. We all want to be young forever, ‘In Love’ with everything and wearing double denim. Peace have got it just right.
Edited by Luisa Parnell