Geowulf are Star Kendrick (vocals) and Toma Banjanin (guitar/vocals) – two childhood friends from Australia’s Sunshine Coast. And ‘sunshine’ is what they are all about with Great Big Blue being a sun-kissed wave of pop bliss totally at odds with its mid-February release.
They may have caught your attention initially with “Stardust”, a 2016 release that fronted an North American ad campaign. This was followed by Relapse, their first EP and a notable slot at Latitude festival. Fittingly, it was summer when we first featured them, the single “Drink too much” is included on the album along with the four songs from their EP.
Their warm and lazy sounds are a blend of Beach House and Lana Del Rey but with bigger production punch. It’s a technicolour dreamcoat of an album, dripping with HD ready sparkle and an occasional welcome vulnerability in the vocal. Of the new, non-EP songs, “Sunday” is a seductive opener, “Greatest Fool” is like The Primitives covering peak period Fleetwood Mac, and “Drink too much” is still irresistible several months and many replays later.
“Hideaway” changes pace a little, with 1960s elements that actually echo Saint Etienne’s “Nothing can stop us now”. It nearly didn’t make the album as it was too pristine in its earlier state according to Toma.
It could be said that the album suffers from a lack of variety; there’s a similar tone and formula at the heart of most songs which works well but Geowulf cater more for the mid-afternoon beach hustle rather than those chilled, hazy evenings.
There are slower songs at the end of the album (EP track “Won’t look back” and the summertime sadness of “Summer Fling”) but these are still big in production.
Get Geowulf on your radar now ready for the coming summer when you’ll certainly be wanting them on your playlists…
Great Big Blue is released today.
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