Possible Humans - Standing Around Alive

On the release of their debut LP in 2019, Melbourne's Possible Humans felt like one of the most-likely-to within the so-called 'dolewave' cluster of Australian groups. No need for me to tell you that things don't always work out how you'd expect (and why that might have been the case in 2020...), but I'd genuinely given up the ghost on this mob. Well, here we now are... Six years on, but little seems to have changed with the Possible Humans sound, an impressively sardonic re-animation of Flying Nun chug and jangle with added Tote Hotel-divined Aussie bravado. There's a song called 'Dumb Cunts Bluff' and another called 'Feel Shit Hit', there's a lyric that bears perfect witness to the delivery of the phrase "selfish twat". It's not only the Aussies that do this kind of thing, but they often do it better than most and so it goes here. In the continued (possibly permanent) absence of bands like The Stroppies, Terry and the Shifters, it's a pleasure to see Possible Humans re-enter the fold with a record that's not only an upgrade on their debut, but carries something within that now almost sounds classic. Australia is too big and culturally rich a country to be defined by one thing. But records like Standing Around Alive will always be part of its firmament and in its soil.  
 
FFO: The Stroppies, The Clean, Terry, The Shifters