The unpredictable Los Angeles band drop their debut album on Rough Trade Records.

You would be a pretty hard hearted individual to come out listening to The Sophs debut album without a massive grin on your face. There is much to enjoy here, but at the bottom of it all is a huge sense of fun. The band make few easy choices here, songs take abstract routes that swerve around in unusual directions. Lyrics pile up in waves of stream of consciousness. Occassionally, they pull out a more recognisable sense of melody just to prove they can be catchy as hell.

The band cold emailed Rough Trade Records, among a flurry of their favourite indie-labels, with their demos before they had even played a show. They weren’t expecting the head of Rough Trade to email them back the very next day. It isn’t surprising to see why on the strength of this album. It demonstrates a huge amount of versatility and potential. The kind of band that can excite, amaze and leave a real sense of impact.

‘THE DOG DIES IN THE END’ starts of with old fashioned sounding talk-singing over a strummed acoustic guitar. Then it briefly kicks in with a wall of guitar before things quieten back down again. Then it explodes again before a quieter outro. It is a hugely theatrical opening that still manages to rock hard. ‘GOLDSTAR’ has an almost Spanish-flamenco guitar line before finding the rock again. It questions why good people are not rewarded, where is my gold star?

Another track another shift of genre. ‘BLITZED AGAIN’ manages to feel more like alt-rock, or classic rock. Each tracks revels in unconventional lines. There are some extraordinary lyrics as well. Ethan Ramon sings a series of things that seem to creep out from the darker corners of the mind, jealously, dislike and provocation.

On ‘DEATH IN THE FAMILY’: “I need a death in the family to turn my page
I need them to understand I have learned my place
‘Cause what good’s atoning for sin? I’ll be bleeding on the sharks
I need divine intervention to wash away these scars.”

Then on ‘A SYMPATHETIC PERSON: “There is a snake under my chin
Sometimes he is my friend
You see, there’s this shortcut that I used to use on the way home after my night shifts in Japanese Village
You know, the one that takes you right under the Zombie Bridge
Where the grass is thinning, brown hair follicles atop a flaking scalp of soil, sediment
Junk and excrement
Where the piss light from the stickered street lamps are tentativе to venture
And evеry tar-black shadow whispers, badgering your imagination to conjure its worst”

‘They Told Me Jump, I Said How High’ is a glorious delta-blues stomp. Final track ‘I’M YOUR FIEND’ saves the most wonderfully catchy surf-punk vibes and “Nah na nah” harmonies to end on a real earworm.

This covers a massive amount of ground in its thirty-seven minute run time. How will they follow this album up? Any way they like apparently, genre switching with ease allows them to keep all doors and possibilities open.

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