{"id":3440,"date":"2016-12-07T13:30:11","date_gmt":"2016-12-07T13:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-american-enthusiasm-holy-wow\/"},"modified":"2018-03-21T22:16:00","modified_gmt":"2018-03-21T22:16:00","slug":"review-american-enthusiasm-holy-wow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-american-enthusiasm-holy-wow\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: American Enthusiasm \u2013 Holy Wow"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure class=\"tmblr-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/78.media.tumblr.com\/644e6761fa947d9e76aeb3b6f73810e5\/tumblr_ohqaaeGvPS1r8no6so6_1280.jpg\" width=\"250em\" alt=\"\" title=\"\"><\/figure>\n<p>It\u2019s been another stellar year for Exeter-based <b>Specialist Subject Records<\/b>, with releases by Doe, Shit Present and Muncie Girls (among many) excelling. Yet, like sharks, there\u2019s a sense with record labels that if they don\u2019t keep moving forward, they\u2019ll eventually die. <\/p>\n<p>Indie-rocking duo <b>American Enthusiasm<\/b> are the latest gem to be unearthed by the taste makers, and while <i>\u2018Holy Wow\u2019<\/i> might be released with one eye on 2017, it shows the evolution of a label that continues to make great strides forward.<\/p>\n<p>Whisky-soaked and ragged, there\u2019s a grittiness to <i>\u2018Holy Wow\u2019<\/i> that is apparent right from the off. Not quite lo-fi, not quite blues and not quite garage rock, tracks like <i>\u2018Limbaud\u2019<\/i> and <i>\u2018Vote\u2019<\/i> fester with an open wound rawness thick with dirt and pus and blood. It\u2019s striking stuff, sparse and sombre, but sharp enough to not become maudlin. <\/p>\n<p><!-- more --><\/p>\n<p>Over the course of seven songs, the fragile intensity would surely get too much. Yet <b>American Enthusiasm<\/b> know when to kick into overdrive, adding a hazy sun-streaked sheen to their downbeat tales. Opener <i>\u2018Holy Wow\u2019<\/i> and <i>\u2018Lift It Off\u2019<\/i> come off like Two Gallants ripping through Japandroids\u2019 back catalogue and it\u2019s as invigorating and exciting as it sounds, while <i>\u2018Smile and Wave\u2019<\/i> possesses the same storytelling nous as former Blake Baby and Lemonhead John Strohm at his freewheeling best. <\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s also a real edge to Sam Bedford\u2019s vocals, meaning you could listen to him moan and mumble and wail his way through any number of songs and it would never lose its lustre. If 2017 is set to be another big year for <b>Specialist Subject<\/b>, expect <b>American Enthusiasm<\/b> to be at the front of the charge. <\/p>\n<p>4\/5<\/p>\n<p><em>\u2019Holy Wow&rsquo;<\/em> by <b>American Enthusiasm<\/b> is released on 9th December on <b>Specialist Subject Records<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p><b>American Enthusiasm<\/b> links: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/americanenthusiasm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Facebook<\/a>|<a href=\"https:\/\/americanenthusiasm.bandcamp.com\/releases\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Bandcamp<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Words by Rob Mair (<a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/BobNightMair\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">@BobNightMair<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s been another stellar year for Exeter-based Specialist Subject Records, with releases by Doe, Shit Present and Muncie Girls (among many) excelling. Yet, like sharks, there\u2019s a sense with record labels that if they don\u2019t keep moving forward, they\u2019ll eventually die. Indie-rocking duo American Enthusiasm are the latest gem to be unearthed by the taste [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":15971,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[2417,2534,15022,1881],"class_list":["post-3440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-album-reviews","tag-american-enthusiasm","tag-holy-wow","tag-rob-mair","tag-specialist-subject-records"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Review: American Enthusiasm \u2013 Holy Wow - Already Heard Staging<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It\u2019s been another stellar year for Exeter-based Specialist Subject Records, with releases by Doe, Shit Present and Muncie Girls (among many) excelling.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Review: American Enthusiasm \u2013 Holy Wow - Already Heard Staging\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It\u2019s been another stellar year for Exeter-based Specialist Subject Records, with releases by Doe, Shit Present and Muncie Girls (among many) excelling.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-american-enthusiasm-holy-wow\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Already Heard Staging\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AlreadyHeard\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-12-07T13:30:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-03-21T22:16:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/tumblr_ohqaaeGvPS1r8no6so6_1280.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Rob Mair\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@alreadyhearduk\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@alreadyhearduk\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Rob Mair\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Review: American Enthusiasm \u2013 Holy Wow - Already Heard Staging","description":"It\u2019s been another stellar year for Exeter-based Specialist Subject Records, with releases by Doe, Shit Present and Muncie Girls (among many) excelling.","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Review: American Enthusiasm \u2013 Holy Wow - Already Heard Staging","og_description":"It\u2019s been another stellar year for Exeter-based Specialist Subject Records, with releases by Doe, Shit Present and Muncie Girls (among many) excelling.","og_url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-american-enthusiasm-holy-wow\/","og_site_name":"Already Heard Staging","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AlreadyHeard\/","article_published_time":"2016-12-07T13:30:11+00:00","article_modified_time":"2018-03-21T22:16:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/tumblr_ohqaaeGvPS1r8no6so6_1280.jpg","width":1,"height":1,"type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Rob Mair","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@alreadyhearduk","twitter_site":"@alreadyhearduk","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Rob Mair","Estimated reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-american-enthusiasm-holy-wow\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-american-enthusiasm-holy-wow\/"},"author":{"name":"Rob Mair","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#\/schema\/person\/89b13496eb0786e75bb1c0b15bf71267"},"headline":"Review: American Enthusiasm \u2013 Holy Wow","datePublished":"2016-12-07T13:30:11+00:00","dateModified":"2018-03-21T22:16:00+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-american-enthusiasm-holy-wow\/"},"wordCount":313,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-american-enthusiasm-holy-wow\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/tumblr_ohqaaeGvPS1r8no6so6_1280.jpg","keywords":["American Enthusiasm","Holy Wow","Rob Mair","Specialist Subject Records"],"articleSection":["Album Reviews"],"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-american-enthusiasm-holy-wow\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-american-enthusiasm-holy-wow\/","url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-american-enthusiasm-holy-wow\/","name":"Review: American Enthusiasm \u2013 Holy Wow - Already Heard Staging","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-american-enthusiasm-holy-wow\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-american-enthusiasm-holy-wow\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/tumblr_ohqaaeGvPS1r8no6so6_1280.jpg","datePublished":"2016-12-07T13:30:11+00:00","dateModified":"2018-03-21T22:16:00+00:00","description":"It\u2019s been another stellar year for Exeter-based Specialist Subject Records, with releases by Doe, Shit Present and Muncie Girls (among many) excelling.","inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-american-enthusiasm-holy-wow\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-american-enthusiasm-holy-wow\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/tumblr_ohqaaeGvPS1r8no6so6_1280.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/tumblr_ohqaaeGvPS1r8no6so6_1280.jpg"},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#website","url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/","name":"Already Heard Staging","description":"Covering the best in alternative music as best as we can","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#organization","name":"Already Heard","url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/AH-relaunch-logo-white-bg.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/AH-relaunch-logo-white-bg.jpg","width":500,"height":500,"caption":"Already Heard"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AlreadyHeard\/","https:\/\/x.com\/alreadyhearduk","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/alreadyheard\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/already-heard\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/AlreadyHeardMusic","https:\/\/tiktok.com\/@alreadyhearduk","https:\/\/www.threads.net\/@alreadyheard"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#\/schema\/person\/89b13496eb0786e75bb1c0b15bf71267","name":"Rob Mair","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e7feccbb8cf9d4de2bea7f0900e02126bcc918e01935cbe6de5ddcb4906a0c8c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e7feccbb8cf9d4de2bea7f0900e02126bcc918e01935cbe6de5ddcb4906a0c8c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e7feccbb8cf9d4de2bea7f0900e02126bcc918e01935cbe6de5ddcb4906a0c8c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Rob Mair"},"url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/author\/robmair\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3440"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3440\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37181,"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3440\/revisions\/37181"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}