Is this stretching the word “rising” too far? Purple Skies, Toxic River was pretty much the best album from 2013, and there’s been nary a peep since from Canberra’s TV Colours since, a one-man project from Bobby Kill. The band did release some new t-shirts in 2018, with a note promising more music soon—that Facebook post is almost a year old at this point. That first LP was criminally underheard in the States, though, even with a domestic release on Comedy Minus One, and so it’d be negligent of us to leave them off a list like this. On Purple Skies TV Colours delivers a pop-punk album in the best possible meaning of the term, a modern day successor to the terminally catchy disquiet of bands like the Buzzcocks and the Mice, but recorded on what sounds like a four-track from the early ‘90s.
Bobby Kill squeezes more warmth and color than you can imagine out of that lo-fi set-up, brightening up the programmed drums and classic riffs tightly coiled together on every song. Look, it’s true: “Beverly” is a song that should be on every “best of ” list, and blasting out of every bored, anxious, unsettled kid’s window every summer night for the rest of existence. And hey, it’s from Australia, so good job, island continent.
The Fat Angel Sings 