The Bats are a 4-piece from New Zealand, they established themselves during that shimmering golden era in the 80s where a few different scenes sprouted and produced a bountiful harvest of excellent music on labels like Xpressway and Flying Nun. Since 1987’s seminal album Daddy’s Highway The Bats have, over six albums, seemingly chipped away at the same sound. There’s shimmer and jangle, like folk rock played in a charged atmosphere, and a melancholy lightly squeezing some songs, listening to an album by them could as easily evoke scenes of back porch beer-drinking as rifling through a musty attic, brushing away rodent droppings whilst flicking through a box of old vinyl.It would be fair to describe some parts of The Guilty Office in this way, but there’s also a little more zest involved too. Last year guitarist Kaye Underwood formed, with bassist Paul Kean and drummer Malcolm Grant, a new band called Minisnap, which is essentially The Bats, minus lead vocalist and guitarist Robert Scott. Their album, Bounce Around, delivered on the promise of it’s name, they were like a danceable Bats and Underwood showed herself to be an excellent songwriter.Although Robert Scott is leader and songwriter for The Bats, new album The Guilty Office seems to have been influenced a little by Bounce Around. For instance, ‘Satellites’ is clean and has a pep to it that isn’t necessarily the norm, Grant’s drumming inflates a care-free feeling, guitars are strummed with light high chords and Underwood provides refreshing backing vocals. ‘Crimson Enemy’ is straight-up poppy, with a brilliant short riff repeating at the start, it’s one of those songs that makes you feel great the instant it starts. Not to mention the frayed guitar sound on the chorus playing a shining catchy riff, Grant exploring his cymbals in an un-showy way and insistent click click clicks. Of course though, that still psychedelic melancholy is retained, ‘Castle Light’ with a sonorous violin and regretful chorus that stretches into a refrain then a coda, ‘Later On That Night’ with some stunning guitar riffs strung along together jamming a real introspectiveness into your head.With the last two tracks we get some excellent stuff that stands up with Daddy’s Highway, ‘The Guilty Office’ has a weepy guitar/bass riff that ascends, before quickly falling away, a magnificent pretty-but-sad moment repeated over and over again. Scott is subdued in voice, the lyrics are about putting things right again with someone, but always you’re aware he’s just imagining how that would go, not necessarily saying it’ll ever happen. It’s a beautiful dreamy song. ‘The Orchard’ in contrast is more of a triumphant note to finish the album, once again feeling like a Minisnap song (but perhaps with a bit more scope). Accordion and violin are used to good effect expanding the sound and adding a vibrant quality to the catchy song. It could be seen as depressing like the last song with lyrics like ‘So we’ll walk at night/through the orchard/and I won’t be tortured/by thoughts in my head’, but because of the tone of the music it feels far more optimistic and hopeful, when he says (backed by Underwood) ‘And I believe you/when you tell me it’s alright’ you believe it too. 75% The Bats on MySpace