Album Review: British India - Nothing Touches Me

The Melbourne group’s new album is reminiscent of early Wombats and Brit pop of the early ‘00s – there’s something so lovable about it.

Spider Chords features the line, “She is lighter than a feather, I am heavier than lead,” and this is only the beginning of the prolific lyrics that lead vocalist, Declan Melia, sings out. There’s also an appropriate build in this opening song to complement the weight of those lyrics. Angela was a strategic ploy, writing a song with a girl’s name in order to take that romantic angle; it’ll make sales with its heartfelt pleas to “Lie down next to me.” Things begin to get more electronic indie pop in Suddenly, clean and emotive with plenty of those one-liners that are evenly dispersed throughout the whole 12-track album.

The boys have not been overly zealous with experimentation, but hard work has clearly been put into the release. However, ballad, Jay Walker, is a little underwhelming, nor is the title track the strongest track, though it has the potential to be. Aside from a few ‘skip over’ tracks with some missed opportunities to draw in greater indie influences, the album does feature some great songs that should be noted. In the final one, Departure Lounge, with its strong Vampire Weekend-style intro, the album ends light as a feather, but could have hit as heavy as that aforementioned lead.