You may not realise it (because the NME hasn't told you so) but slacker-rock is about to make a timely comeback. Don't believe it? Well that's probably because you haven't listened to the new album by Wakefield's own kings of slur Piskie Sits. Wrath cunningly snapped up the boys last year and then locked them in a basement until they had detoxed just enough to record an album. Ok that last bit was made up.
Craig Hale may look and sound like he needs a strong coffee but that is exactly why he should be the perfect anti-hero in these days of fast living. It's hard to imagine any of these songs were written in a hurry. It's far more likely that the band just dropped some chords on the floor and said "Hey man they look pretty". Sounding like the early Teenage Fanclub only with more pop bones than rock muscles and playing Pavement and Pastels covers it's a glorious trip back in time to the days when Dinosaur Jr and the rest ruled.
From opener "No Hidden Chord" with its chant along outro to the jilted and driving "Big Fat Mouth" the guitar playing is meticulously loose and the production fittingly woolly. "Slidy Show" and "Girl In Bed" are lazy sunny chugging beats, the latter replete with off-key slide guitar. "The Hope and The Aim" finds the band in a bleaker mood while single "Witches" still sounds as great like a twisted fairground soundtrack reminiscent of Grandaddy. Crowning glory comes in the brilliant "What Is the Point?" with its monster-pop outro and if there is any justice it should live on as an indie-dance floor classic forever.
This is one big hangover soothing, comfy chair of an album so put your feet up. Don't let The Secret Sickliness be a secret, go and find anyone who has loved slack-college-rock in the past and tell them you have found the light which will lead them out of their angular-guitar hell. Bliss.
