More about: The Native

If you’ve been to an indie or alternative night over the last decade and a half, then the chances are it was put on by This Feeling. Their club nights across the country are legendary, with patronage from the likes of Serge Pizzorno and Noel Gallagher (no less), designed to give new and upcoming guitar bands the opportunity to showcase their skills and pick up new fans along the way. The likes of Blossoms, The Amazons, Gerry Cinnamon and Catfish and The Bottlemen were all give step-ups at certain venues along their way. So influential are new label that they’ve also branched out into TV shows.

Yet that wasn’t enough, so earlier in the year This Feeling announced their latest and most exciting venture yet: a new record label in conjunction with ADA Records, inspired by legendary independent imprints such as Creation and Factory. Recipients of the honour of This Feeling’s maiden release are The Native, a five-piece from one of Britain’s burgeoning hotbeds of music (no, seriously), Plymouth, with an EP of six songs clocking in at around 20 minutes.

It's immediately apparent from the cacophonous drums of opening track 'Blindside' that The Native have the chops to make it. Everything about the EP is gargantuan in size and scale, be it the sound of the musicianship or the intensity of the lyrics. Indeed, Blindside’s opening lyrics ("I was old enough to remember and too young to know,") suggests a wisdom beyond their years, frontman Charlie Noordewier looking back nostalgically while the excellent rhythm section (Tom Booth on bass, Fergus Segrove on drums) propel the track forward.

Looking Back builds with added synthesizers and piano (from Harry Youngs) which add texture to the sound and seems to inspire Noordewier’s vocal performance, while recent single 'Changes' takes things down a notch. Formed around open chords on the acoustic guitar (presumably provided by Ben Andrew, completing the quintet), it’s an emotional track about self-improvement of which Sam Fender would be proud, even with some muffled enunciation from Noordewier. It’s followed by 'All or Nothing', with excellent guitar-picking from Andrew, it’s a lighters-in-the-air, arms aloft anthem which is surely a centrepiece at their gigs. 

Best of all is '20 Something' which opens with a memorable bass riff while lyrically going straight for the gut, tackling themes of addiction as a means of escape from the drudgery. Serious themes for ones so young, but then these are serious times. Lastly, rounding the EP off is 'If Not Now Then When' ("my mental health keeps holding me back"), another anthem-in-waiting which capably displays the frontman’s vocal range.

At points the heart-on-sleeves approach can verge too closely to moroseness, but the universality of the lyrics will ensure The Native will aways be affecting someone, and the emotional content is offset by the pristine production and arrangement. So far, so good, This Feeling. Next please.

Looking Back is out now.

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More about: The Native