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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Ben Beaumont-Thomas

Still House Plants: If I Don’t Make It, I Love U review – inspiringly fearless and free art rock

The most vital band working in Britain today … Still House Plants.
The most vital band working in Britain today … Still House Plants. Photograph: Abby Thomas

From the album title onwards, unstoppably ardent feeling fills this awe-inspiring album from the British art-rock trio, whose music swells your heart and fizzes your mind. Creeping ever further out of the underground since forming at Glasgow School of Art in 2015, you’d need a whiteboard to triangulate the various acts that come to mind listening to them – Bill Orcutt, This Heat, Tirzah, Zach Hill, Labradford; free improv, neo-soul, slowcore, post-rock, boom-bap hip-hop. But they wriggle free of comparisons, remarkable given they’re working with a simple, mostly unadorned vocals-drums-guitar setup.

David Kennedy’s drumming is riveting, both finicky and louche as he sways through Dilla-time funkiness and math-rock detail. Guitarist Finlay Clark is in some ways a minimalist, repeating pretty riffs or expertly chosen chords, but there’s nothing minimal about his generous playing – he fills up the songs without lazy application of echo or reverb, and occasionally complements Kennedy with percussive playing of his own.

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