Double album.
“4 stars – savant genius” – Mojo
“4 stars – a focused pop punk sensibility...delightful deadpan cynicism” – Sunday Times Culture
“4 stars – lyrics that might have spilled from the pen of Daniel Johnston had he been locked in his bedroom with nothing but old copies of Heat magazine to read” – The Stool Pigeon
“8/10 – raises insolence to an artform” – NME
Fast, infectious, pithy and witty, with their debut album “In the Court of the Wrestling Let’s” London trio Let’s Wrestle created a freewheeling, ramshackle indie rock classic, stocked to the rafters with instantly addictive pop bullets laced with a droll, deadpan wit and insouciantly tipping its collective hat to greats such as Dinosaur Jr, Pavement, and even Buddy Holly. Over 16 tracks they have somehow managed to distil and perfectly articulate the vagaries of being young and bored in modern Britain, stitching together an exhilarating portrait of the nature of youth and young manhood itself – of wide-eyed recklessness and restlessness, thwarted romance and ennui.
Whether singing nonchalantly about going to the job centre so they have enough money to “buy some G&T’s for the girls” (“We Are the Men You’ll Grow to Love”), or trying to mend a fractured relationship (“I Am In Love With Destruction”), or, surreally, spying on a bandmate with Princess Di hair as he eats his dinner (“Diana’s Hair”) Let’s Wrestle are never anything less than fully invigorating and captivating, with magnificently seesawing guitars and Wesley’s full throated vocal delivery contriving to make the most gleefully rambunctious pop-punk racket you’ll hear in a good long while.
Since its release last year, things have moved swiftly for the band, with them signing on with the legendary Merge Records label in America (home to the likes of Neutral Milk Hotel, Arcade Fire, Robert Pollard and many others) and with Full Time Hobby in the UK, which brings us neatly to this reissue – a glorious 2 CD set which repackages their debut LP with another CD collecting together the band’s previously hard to find early singles and EP’s, bringing the story of Let’s Wrestle bang up to date, and setting the stage for the next phase of their ridiculously bright future.