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Oxford has long had a vibrant and eclectic music scene and our good friend Ronan at Nightshift has been documenting it every single month since before we can remember – ever since Mrs Mackerel introduced us more than quarter of a century ago, he has shared some of our favourite music, film and books with us and even taken us to some Wycombe Wanderers games…
Anyway, here is his track of the year from a brilliant Oxford band called Self Help, and an absolute belter it is too.
Last month Self Help were on the cover [of Nightshift], grinning like the kids who got all the cake and deservedly so, since no other band caused such a frenzy of excitement locally in 2018 as this quartet, who could mix pure, unadulterated exuberance with pure, unadulterated noisy bastardness and make it look and sound like it was as easy as breathing and as much fun as a box of kittens. While their live shows were ebullient celebrations of youthful musical zest and belligerent displays of firepower all at once, the band’s new EP showed they could write cracking pop songs into the bargain, and this track, released as a single in November, was everything we love about Self Help: joy as a musical weapon. A song to leap around your living room to, hug complete strangers in the moshpit to, break all your furniture to and sing along to from the top of mountains or tall building. It’s an absolute blast from start to finish, and since it’s just three minutes long, you can rewind and play it again and again til they come to take you away.
Have a listen. Get the EP here.
