Last night was the album launch for the new Bank Holidays album, “Sail Becomes a Kite”.

For this sophomore album, the Hols have turned down the temperature, washing their trademark sunny harmonies in a golden melancholic glow. You’d think this would make for a difficult concert, playing downbeat songs that the audience doesn’t know. In fact, the concert worked amazingly well, for three reasons:

  1. They interspersed their old favourites like ‘The Greatest Game’ and ‘She’s Not Into Love’.
  2. They played a kick-ass version of the Kinks’ (or the Jam’s) song ‘David Watts’. Hope they recorded it — that would be a great b-side.
  3. The new material is really strong, and they can do it live. The three-part harmonies were incredibly listenable — the audience seemed to be hanging on to the notes, or maybe it was just me.
I haven’t gotten through the whole album yet — I’m savouring it. The Bank Holidays partake in the unpretentious optimism of many other twee bands, but twee isn’t usually welded to songwriting as confident as this. A great show, and so far, a great album.