Album Review – Fantastic Tales of the Sea by The Hannah Barberas (Spinout Nuggets, Gazer Tapes and Subjangle) (2023)
After two previous albums and several EP’s, long-time fans of the South East London foursome The Hannah Barberas may face their first real test of the strength of their adulation.
It is not that ‘the Hannahs’ have completely fhifted their musical stance, for Lucy Formoli’s made-for-jangly twee-pop vocals will always keep them somewhere around that sort of musical arena. However, their signature sound has been fleshed out in terms of intensity and vigor resulting in additional energy manifested in a new but just as delightful, indie-pop, lukewarm raucousness.
Initially, the dynamic augmentations to the sound must be an absolute delight for bassist Ian Evans as You’re So!?, Ugly Cry, Fast Friends, and Butterflies take dulcet, rumbling basslines that twist with the twang-inflected end of the A Certain Ratio and Bush Tetras groove-inflected vibe, whilst never stepping out from the melodic persuasions of jangly indie-pop to fully embrace the mid-80s post-punk of the aforementioned mid-80s acts.
Similar subtle differences can be heard in the jangly, twee-inflected C86 sounds of You’re A Camera and When You Were My Boyfriend, which are only saved from complete The Shop Assistants-ism by Formoli’s beautiful vocal cutesy, whereas Love them? Tell Them! is trumpet-laced The June Brides in texture, and along with the downplayed jangly indie-pop of the superlative title track, it completes a synopsis of a band that plainly loves, appreciates, and thoroughly ‘knows’ their 1980s jangly indie-pop.
Slightly more expansive, slightly different, slightly more raucous…Fantastic Tales of the Sea is still so very perfectly The Hannah Barberas. Grab a copy in your favourite format here.
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