With Joyce Manor essentially winning indie-emo-punk for 2016 with ‘Cody’ a couple of weeks back, it would take a band with some serious stones to try and take them on in any capacity. Enter I’m Glad It’s You, a California act with a similar penchant for ’90s-inspired, Midwest-sounding alt-rock. And though their new album ‘The Things I’d Never Say’ mightn’t hit the same giddy heights as Joyce Manor did, they still manage to fly as their own beast.

Though considering them “their own beast” might be easier said than done, as ‘The Things I’d Never Say’ evokes some pretty potent imagery of plenty of other acts. Joyce Manor, Modern Baseball and You Blew It! can all be picked up on in I’m Glad It’s You’s sound, and though they may leave them to some as just another face in the crowd, they’ve got the songwriting know-how to at least make some sort of impression. Something the likes of ‘Communion’ and the weaving ‘Keepsake’ would attest to.

As much as this is an album that gets along by following genre tropes to a T, it can’t be denied that the band do it well. ‘Revival’’s jangle and muffled vocals bring prominent indie and shoegaze influences to the fore, and there’s a gently upbeat lilt to ‘The Things We Lose’. Hardly revolutionary stuff then, but there are good intentions and a decent execution and it’s something you can get behind easily.

There have been so many of this type of album released this year that you’ve probably made your mind up about ‘The Things I’d Never Say’ already. If you’re looking for something that manages to flip the formula on its head, I’m Glad It’s You might leave you cold. But for a bit more of the same, you could do much worse than checking this out. Pretty derivative, but still pretty good.

3.5/5

‘The Things I’d Never Say’ by I’m Glad It’s You is released on 4th November on 6131 Records.

I’m Glad It’s You links: Facebook|Twitter|Bandcamp

Words by Luke Nuttall(@nuttall_luke)