Probably the band with the greatest name in the world right now, Philadelphia’s The Goalie’s Anxiety at the Penalty Kick release the equally enthrallingly titled new album ‘The Iliad and the Odyssey and the Goalie’s Anxiety at the Penalty Kick’ via Count Your Lucky Stars Records on 25 April.
A six – sometimes seven – piece, the new record was written during the recovery from the pandmic and celebrates how beautiful life can be. ‘Leaf’ opens the album with swaying melodies and words about how important it is to connect on a human level: ‘Shutting off the Wi-Fi and I hid your phone under the couch’. ‘April 25’ continues in the twinkly emo vein as the band vow to always find a way to mark the subject’s special day amidst some powerful military drumming: ‘No matter what happens the rest of the year, we’ll celebrate your birthday’. ‘First Time’ is full of nostalgia amidst the Owen-style guitar work as they look back on being 17 and reference tambourines and Facebook groups before looking out for another: ‘Just checking in, just making sure your window’s closed’.
‘Tightrope Walker/Stranger in These Dark Times’ opens with a line about ‘always looking up at a critical moment before veering into a Hop Along sound, while ‘System of One’ examines moments of solitude. There’s talk of finding an escape high up in a mountain before hallucinating and a defining statement: ‘I live alone, no one waiting for me at the door’. ‘Mr Settled Score’ is a six-and-a-half-minute post-rock beast with an underlying tenderness that looks at the tragedy of war and the penultimate ‘Midwestern Home’ is equally honest and raw: ‘I found God, he let me go… Back to my midwestern home…’
Fear no more, The Goalie’s Anxiety at the Penalty Kick have scored a winner with this fragile, fantastic record.
