The Warlocks
Just Like Surgery

My computer having been offline for the past week due to a mysterious manifestation of water in the keyboard (handy hint: drying it out in the boiler-cupboard worked wonders), I'm so relieved to be typing this that I could probably give anything a passing grade at this point. But kicking off with The Warlocks’ new single is safe enough, as 'It’s Just Like Surgery' is far too self-evidently brilliant to require any forced objectivity on my part.

Presenting romance as simultaneous anaesthetic and disemboweller, The Warlocks here mix Novocain references with a vocal-line infused with a dulled yet twisting pain. This resigned ache of a lyric is set forth over music with the spacious and feedback-wracked qualities of JAMC and a low-key sweeping beauty which begs the listener to float off on the back on the tune. Need/hate romantic compliance has never sounded so good – and the B-Sides are cracking, too.