Currently signed to Heavenly Records, the home to the likes of Kneecap and Halo Maud. The group formed just before the pandemic and have been actively releasing music since 2022. At the beginning of each performance, they arrive on stage with these utterly terrifying red masks of what I presume are Tapirs, said by the band to represent the pilgrim - the protagonist of this new record. This is my first issue with the record - there is absolutely no mention of whether or not this Tapir pilgrim is as similarly well-endowed as regular tapirs (don’t google it for the love of god please don’t it was a silly joke don’t google a Tapir’s phallus).

Maybe the masks are a gimmick to help you remember the band; maybe the masks are there to take attention away from the band members and encourage a focus on the music; maybe, these guys are just as weird and wonderful as their music and, for whatever reason, are content wearing these clearly extremely uncomfortable and probably rather sweaty masks. In any case, the scope of this debut coupled with the band’s already clearly defined identity is impressive. Tapir! appear to be very sure of who they are and what they want to do.

Now to the music - as mentioned earlier, I find the ambition of this record really quite commendable. It takes some serious cojones to, with your first full LP, launch a mythological universe like this. Thankfully, Tapir! stick the landing. Throughout each three acts, especially the first and final, the group offer up a wonderfully diverse and ethereal smorgasbord of sounds.

The album’s sonic palette is cohesive; an integral part of the strange, almost pre-human world Tapir! construct. Electronic components are used sparingly to add an otherworldly feel to numerous tracks on the record like the dissociative beeps at the tail of ‘The Nether (Face To Face)’ closing the first Act and ushering in the second. Warm acoustic riffs are littered throughout like on Act 3’s ‘Untitled’ and Act 1’s ‘On A Grassy Knoll (We’ll Bow Together)’ that feel like the toasty nuzzle of the Pilgrim’s small stack of burning sticks. The brass on some of the more grandiose moments like the latter half of ‘Act 3 (The King Of My Decrepit Mountain)’ and the LP’s euphoric closer, ‘Mountain Song’ help put real weight behind these key moments, setting them apart from the rest of the record. All of this wrapped under a bow of Ike Gray’s off-kilter croons culminates in an otherworldly cinematic stroll through a world where the sun always seems to shine and the monsters speak in wingdings. 

You likely know all of this, if it wasn’t Radio 6 that told you then perhaps it was Radio 1, Radio X, Channel 4 News, BBC News, ITV News, Graham Norton, Stephen Colbert, Jools Holland, The Evening Standard, The Guardian, The Times, The Independent, NME, Line Of Best Fit, Pitchfork, Rolling Stone even fucking BBC Football Focus’ Garth Crooks. Garth fucking Crooks, he's a football pundit, a pretty crap football pundit at that as well. Google it I swear to god Garth Crooks shouted out TLDP.
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Herein lies what is getting everybody so shouty and at times, blindly sexist  - the band are being shoved down our throats with a ham-fist. The press these guys have received in the UK really is quite staggering and it's hard to not be somewhat irked by the seemingly nonstop barrage of TLDP content across our airwaves, screens and papers. It’s a shame; the music doesn't need this heavy-handed promotion circuit, it could very much stand on its own and get the plaudits it deserves. 

The propagandistic press has however served its purpose well - “Prelude To Ecstacy” debuted at no.1 on the UK OCC Album’s Chart and received positive look-ins from all the key tastemakers like Pitchfork, Anthony Fantano, Gary Neville (Not Really) etc. etc. Across all measures in the critical and commercial worlds of music, this record is a smash success.

As I alluded to earlier, it's a good record. The opening track, ‘Prelude To Ecstasy’, is a grand arrangement of brass, strings, and wind that brilliantly shows the listener early exactly what to expect. The album’s second track, ‘Burn Alive’, carries forward this florid orchestral sound. A thumping bass drum and delicate guitar melody pet the listener before lead singer Abigail Morris finally croons in from stage left, announcing herself to the record. 

You get a complete picture of the album’s identity and sonic palette from these tracks, a big part of what I think makes this a good opener. From here, the album never deviates from this gilt sonic path. Singles like ‘Caesar on A TV Screen’ and ‘By Your Side’ offer a more indie-leaning and dilute alternative when compared to the deeper cuts like my personal favorites ‘The Feminine Urge’ and ‘Beautiful Boy’ that indulge more in the grandiose.

From here onwards the group didn't hold back from exploring other sounds. ‘Sick & Tired’ sounds much like what we would come to hear on “One More Thing”. There’s more of the additional touches like occasional light layers of echo on the vocal passages and a background synth layer sitting adjacent to a basic but infectious bassline. ‘Pulp’ feels like a love letter to David Byrne and his collective of animated yapping heads - the bass wah’s through layers of translucent sludge before the sound tightens and guitars enter in a screeching slap to your ears. ‘Clockwork’ is a more sensitive and subdued number that pulls more from the South London Indie Scene that the band were likely very immersed in at this point. 
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The band’s willingness to dip their toe into a spectrum of sounds was a big part of what intrigued people about the group early on. But here comes the Rorschach Test - do you see a band shopping around for their sound or one exploring their various influences? And what, if anything, does this scattergun-esque approach mean for their debut - can the listener expect a similar variety in sounds and aesthetics? 

Short answer - no, the record has a fairly consistent identity and feel. Described by the band as ‘Wonk Pop’, “One More Thing” feels a lot like if you took elements of The New York Indie scene in the early 2000s and doused it in Amyl Nitrates or put a little penis shaped pin that says something like ‘Nice To Meat You’ on its lapel. The influence of this period in “One More Thing” is undeniable, but the sound is to a certain extent recontextualised.

There’s janky guitars you’d expect from early The Strokes on cuts like the album opener ‘Love Song’ that drive the song’s pulsing dance beat forward above a thick and wonderfully weighty bassline, courtesy of Tippi Morgan (who learnt bass FOR the band, which I think is kinda cool). Some songs, like ‘Floor’ and ‘Fears’, flirt with electronic components like synthesisers and vocoders rather than just the DIY lo-fi analog instrumentation that typifies that early 2000s New York sound. A lot of the recontextualisation that does occur is in these brief amorous advances with electronic instruments and in the general polish that the record has.

Unlike these groups however, much of this authenticity comes wholly from Chloe Howard’s songwriting. Chloe’s lyrics frequently explore themes of identity and belonging in the modern music industry: ‘Pop Star’ explores life as an aspiring musician working two jobs and desperately trying to break from one life to another before time runs out.

Other cuts explore much more directly relatable topics with a similar wit. ‘I Want To Be You’, my personal favourite song on the record, is a desperate plea for validation and recognition from a celebrity-like figure. This parasocial obsession is equally a perverse desire for that person physically and, arguably more perverse, a desire to be inhabiting this person’s life. 

“One More Thing” is a cute, energetic and charismatic debut record full of sincerity and character. While it is a really fun album, repeat listens reveal that it plays itself very safely; not seeking to push the envelope much beyond the already established sounds and styles of the indie movement it so heavily draws from. It doesn't reinvent the wheel but it quite clearly also does attempt to do so in any way; and, while the group ultimately landed on a relatively familiar sound for their debut after a lengthy period of exploration, their track record suggests that future output could very well be much more varied and explorative.