Family Video - Maybe This Summer

Purely in terms of quality, Maybe The Summer is the best sounding Family Video album to date, but the band rarely venture from their habitual creative nest of writing simple songs based around basic instrumental elements and a simple melodic hook. Melancholic Casio keys open the album with “Ten Years Will Pass”, while singer Jam King gives a dispiriting view of time-passing by, “I know that ten years will pass, so fast that you just wish that you could slow down and stop here for while”, a feeling of isolation that will surely ring true to islanders on both sides of the Atlantic.

Despite some chirpy guitar work interspersed throughout the album, Family Video’s dour take on life, combined with King’s emotive, yet frankly flat, vocal delivery makes Maybe This Summer a bit of fun-sapper. The upbeat and infectious chorus on “She Reminds Me” could easily soundtrack drunken party mischief, and the scuzzy garage-pop of “Sitting In My Room” provides a mid-album highlight, but these tracks prove to be a welcome anomaly on a generally despondent record.

Simplicity and immediacy are virtues that, by and large, get overlooked with modern bands, and for this Family Video should be praised. Maybe This Summer is a terrifically empathetic piece of music with levels of enthusiasm well and truly curbed. Sharing lineage with the ‘misery loves company’ indie of The Smiths and The Cure does mean that, if you listen to Maybe This Summer in the right mindset, you’ll find a thankful comrade in mopery. However, by limiting themselves sonically and remaining emotionally restricted, Family Video end up pulling their punches and too often fail to hit their target.