It Hugs Back - 'Inside Your Guitar' (4AD) Released 06/04/09

Some commentators have criticised It Hugs Back for not sounding quite as abrasive as My Bloody Valentine and Sonic Youth, the feedback merchants with fearsomely liberal attitudes towards decibel consumption they’ve been routinely compared to. Seriously, how could a band with a name like that have any interest in abusing the listeners’ eardrums?

As it happens, the band’s chosen moniker turns out to be a very accurate description of their stock in trade. Instead of aural terrorism and sonic muggings, It Hugs Back’s default setting is disorientated dream-pop that cuddles rather than attacks, not unlike a streamlined version of fellow 4AD sign-ees Deerhunter, only with a more pronounced grasp on the traditional verse-chorus-verse formula. They’ve also got a fair bit in common with the shoegazing revival, particularly Sweden’s permanently haze-enshrouded Jeniferever, albeit with a positive outlook that skips the genre’s keen interest in pharmaceuticals and moping indoors by bingeing on steady doses of sunshine.

The nearest point of comparison, however, would be Ella Guru, criminally underrated Liverpool take on Lambchop’s famed ‘least possible amount of noise with the largest available mass of musicians’ recipe. Like Ella Guru, It Hugs Back showcase skills in whispering rather than screaming. Replacing the now sadly defunct mini-orchestra’s wide range of instruments with a stripped-down arsenal of ringing guitars and wheezing analogue keyboards, the Maidstone four-piece are equally adept at avoiding grand gestures, preferring instead to slow-cook constructs of remarkable beauty, with each initially underwhelming element adding something substantial to the finished picture. Unfortunately, also like Ella Guru, they plunge earthwards as soon as the tempo moves beyond caressingly atmospheric mid-tempo floating.

Thankfully, detours to limp variations of rocking out are few and far between. The vast majority of ‘Inside Your Guitar’ – with the heavy-lidded opener ‘Q’ and ethereal chiming of ‘Forgotten Song‘ ranking as particularly irresistible specimens - stays within the confines of the band’s unhurriedly paced comfort zone. The results are sufficiently hypnotic to compensate for the inevitably narrow range. Hardly revolutionary or rousing fare, then, but It Hugs Back are easily charming enough to make such less than exciting terms as cosy and soothing seem like an enthusiastic recommendation.