The Travoltas - The Travoltas

Never heard of The Travoltas? Not to be confused with the pop-punkers from the Netherlands, this band of Travoltas hail from Dallas, Texas. Caught somewhere between the self-deprecating harmonies of Weezer and the drive of a punk band, The Travoltas is their debut album despite having formed in 2011.

Some songs on this album seem to have appeared before, so figuring out exactly what this album is about is part of the charm. It makes you wonder why it took so long for them to get this album together officially.

‘Mail Ya To Australia’ is one of those songs, and it is pretty clever in its walking piano, tropical guitar rhythm and proposed torture of a lover who has lost their spark for what was once a whirlwind romance. “You said you always wanted a love that stretched to the ends of the earth, I bet you never thought I’d be sending you to Perth” is just one example of the irreverent humour on display.

Elsewhere, things get a bit too weird. ‘The Thing’ goes for a rollicking surf-rock vibe but simply throws verbs at the same line over and over (“You make me happy when you ______ that thing”) until it becomes unlistenable and sort of creepy.

There is some heart stashed away on tracks like ‘Blame My Baby’ and ‘If You Could Be The Star’ but it centers around how much of loser lead singer Salim Nourallah's feels in comparison to other guys. Mixed into these emotions and feeling of inadequacies are an eclectic mix of genres in sound, ‘Snowball’ and ‘I Was Dancing in the Lesbian Bar’ have the choppy guitars and shimmering synth of classic disco, while ‘Ghost of Your Love’ has a galloping triumph found in classic surf rock.

This is the kind of music which will be akin to Marmite. While plenty of it sounds a bit weaselly, there is a melodic and musical competency which you can’t deny. ‘I Can’t Say No To You’ is the most relatable and normal of the tracks on the album, with the irresistible forces of love reminding you of The Beach Boys, with the sincerity of the keys backing up the words.

Ultimately, this is a band who are functioning outside of their time, such is the varied selection of musicians assembled, but they each confidently display their quirks.