Green Dream in F#. The Bug Club

What a horrendous cover! There's no other word for it. In a way the music behind the cover reflects this ugliness as The Bug Club does not exert itself to sound nice or beautiful. It certainly doesn't. Mind, this is totally opposed to doing a lot of things simply very right. Just listen to the alternative pop rock songs and you will find out The Bug Club has sponged up everything U.K. from around 1980, starting with Squeeze and The Velvet Underground from the U.S.

The Bug Club is a band from Wales and releases its second full length album, also having released an EP and two singles since 2021. With Green Dream In F# the band caught my attention for the first time. Singer and guitarist Sam, singer and bassist Tilly and drummer Dan together produce alternative rock songs with sometimes more rock or pop flavour. In general the sound is always dark, muddied. This band is not out to please the average listener. It's like that young witch in some of Terry Pratchett's later novels, who has second and third thoughts. Only when you pursue the songs individually The Bug Club's sparks come out, never or seldom at first listen.

During your second and third thoughts you will hear more than you thought at first. That little harmony vocal, that extra melody. The Bug Club is to the point as well. Only three songs go over 2 and a half minute. A few even under one minute.

The music can be traced back to the second half of the 1960s from the moment The Beatles truly tapped into its creativity and when The Velvet Underground found out things could really be done differently. Although almost nobody understood that at the time. The Bug Club does, despite being potential grandchildren of the band's members. Sam Wilmett's voice has the same timbre as the singer from Squeeze who sang 'Cool For Cats', Chris Difford. Singing with Tilly Harris is one of the better features of The Bug Club. A truly fun element. Like Squeeze, The Bug Club is able to show a few different faces to its music. It only makes me wonder if the band has a 'Is This Love?' or 'Tempted' in it as well?

Music comes in many sorts and shapes. Not everything is pretty on the outside as Green Dream In F# shows. The inner light of the album is shining bright though and that is what wins here.

Wout de Natris

You can listen to and order Green Dream in F# here:

https://thebugclub.bandcamp.com/album/green-dream-in-f