“Mumble quietly as we walk home / I am tired of being alone.”
In their ten years of existence (with the same members!), Bristol based three-piece Toodles And The Hectic Pity have adjusted their focus from folk punk toward emo. Given the band’s odd name, perhaps their slip toward emo was pre-ordained. Their roots in folk punk are still clear in their many acoustic-focused songs, and in the storytelling approach to their lyrics. Their first ever LP Hold Onto Happiness With Both Hands releases this week, and could be this year’s most essential DIY emo record.
The sonic character of Hold Onto Happiness With Both Hands helps to clinch the emo vibe. The production imperfect in only a few ways, bringing oodles of character that would have been snuffed out by a high calibre studio. The guitar is all full-bodied acoustic (no raspy electric imitations here), plus pedals to give it the drive it needs. Max Cole’s bass is smooth and present, and you’ll never strain to hear the surprisingly complex lines he plays. Plenty of extra percussion joins Dom Mosley’s drumwork. Singer Callum McAllister has two distinct vocal registers: in the first he sings in a somewhat spoken, hushed way, becoming our guide through album’s many gentle passages. He can enter the second vocal-mode at any moment, throwing his voice up to the ceiling to enter “that” essential emo vocal register. In these electric moments, the three-piece explode with emotion, amd McAllister’s microphone seems to struggle to follow his trajectory. If you appreciate the honest, unfiltered atmospheres of bands like Crywank, The Brave Little Abacus, and, phew, Neutral Milk Hotel, know that Toodles And The Hectic Pity might make you feel the same way.
The record contains many brilliant songs that are detailed well beyond what you’d expect from an acoustic guitar-led three-piece. “Wake Up Cold” captures the essence of a emo album opener in three short minutes. A lofty comparison would be a condensed version of The Hotelier’s “An Introduction to the Album”, down to the smooth transition into track two. “Solitary, Or So It Seems” is quintessential Toodles: heartbreak-meets-jubilant in mood, it’s a song leaps and turns dynamically as required by its lyrical story. Most of the tracks end in the aforementioned larger-than-life rockouts, but “The Enemies of Happiness Are Not Napping!” flips this around by starting big and fading down into trumpet and cello embellishments.
The best track showcasing soft-vocal delivery is “Religious Experience on the Bristol-Bath Railway Path”. It’s a summery acoustic track that takes its lovely riff very seriously, slowly building it up toward shimmering organ. McAllister sings lyrics that are are deeply visual, contemplating natural beauty, sonder, and relationships in a relatable way (“And there’s a million dreaming miles in the liminal space of the cycle path / I send psychic more code messages all the while”). It’s a heart-warming track that takes you to a quiet, idyllic place.
“Emotionally Unclean” is the banger single that celebrates the struggle toward self-improvement (“I just want someone to admit that they love me / So I can turn around and say ‘I’m sorry, I’m still working on me”). The first chorus is split between quiet and loud, and the bridge skyrockets with tension toward the chorus’ final reprise. Despite being the catchiest number, it shows of the band’s brilliantly non-linear approach to songwriting. A subtler track is “An Incurable Soul (Chicken Neck Boogie)”, which starts out pleasant enough in its first half, but becomes lyrically-poisonous (“’Cause I hope the that the doctors are confused / I hope that they never find a cure for you”). When the band falls away to just acoustic guitar, you’ll feel the impending boom in your bones.
The end of the record is interesting, with “Re: Surfacing” being your more typical upbeat-emo closer, as effective as ever. (“You hear voices breathing through the walls: you’re not alone”). Even though its ending is so massive, the actual final song is “Pedestrian Baby Pt 2”, an amp-ed up continuation of it’s part one in the middle of the record. Both “Pedestrian Baby” tracks are particularly curious as their lyrics are narratively driven, ending the record on uncertain terms (“I’ll be the last one standing, and I will lower your corpse / Into the unforgiving earth. I won’t be stepped on anymore”). Being simple slow-dances without choruses they won’t draw you in on your first listens, but they become the record’s most enigmatic tracks.
Hold Onto Happiness With Both Hands is both lofty and down to earth. The overall flow of the record is perfect, its length is ideal, and the quality of the songs is very consistent. Toodles And The Hectic Pity hit you hard with emotional songs that will take a long time to unfold. It’s simply a palette of soulful chords, plenty of dynamics, and great detail in songwriting. The worldwide nerdy-emo community should be latching onto this – we should see Toodles tracks on YouTube emo mixtapes, complete with those blurry suburban photos and weepy commenters. All the hallmarks are here, but I’ll stop just short of calling it a modern classic of acoustic emo, if only because I really makes me wonder what the band will put out next. Based on the incredible strength of this record, they absolutely have a classic in them.
8.5/10
Hold Onto Happiness With Both Hands releases on the 23rd of June through Specialist Subject, and can be pre-ordered here or here.