Black In Orange Colour

Tracklist:

1. Tracing Hallmark
2. Pulling Quotes
3. Pallor Tricks
4. Albatross
5. Down To Size
6. Keys Down If You Stay
7. Reprise
8. Nice Try
9. Bell Wheel
10. Bitter Melon

“The Gloss” is the second album from Cola. From their inception Cola have expanded on the d.i.y. ethic of the Dis-chord and SST eras, creating potent sounds from a minimal palette of drums/bass/guitar and lacing their songs with winsome one-liners and societal commentary. What’s another word for commentary? Gloss, apparently. Never basic, the lyrics reward repeated listening for deeper meanings. David Berman’s poetry-via-garage light pen-nings are an inspiration, as equally so are the lighter side of UK first-wave New Wave and the Dunedin sound. The results are in the pudding: at times sparse and poetic, at others a thrilling, hook-laden good time, as with the cheeky romantic sketch of a one-night stand that is so overflowing with innuendo-cum-journalism talk that it almost teeters over into self-parody. But the results are the right combination of lightheartedness and sincerity.