by Jacob Wingate-Bishop

Your Cuckoo is the latest effort from British indie rock artist Teenage Waitress, following the release of his 2020 debut, Love & Chemicals. In his own words, Daniel Ash (sole mainstay of the band off the stage) describes his sophomore record as more ‘organic’ than that of the bedroom-and-laptop remixing he’s become synonymous with.

Your Cuckoo opens with the speakeasy jazz of ‘Baby Blue’. Through mellow verses and similarly bluesy guitar, the five-minute introduction to Ash’s second release is an ambitious one, and a fitting bridge from old to new. There’s still some Love & Chemicals’-esque digi-noise hidden among the jamming.

‘Maggie’, meanwhile, is anything but mellow; a punk track which soars from demo to fully-fledged spit-slinger in well under two minutes. ‘Grey Sky’, the lead single from Cuckoo, proves one of Ash’s strongest tracks, echoing the Radio X days of British indie rock. There’s a touch of Warren Zevon’s signature cynicism in ‘Girl, I Want You to Kill Me’, and ‘I Like the Way You Fall in Love’ is proof enough that Your Cuckoo is more than just the singles, in a Beatles-meets-Of Monsters and Men ode.

The Thrills’ 2003 hit ‘Big Sur’ is echoed in ‘Big Smoke’, a high point of the album and one of the catchiest tracks of the summer. Then Ash whiplashes into a 180 with follow-up single ‘Back Seat’, a lovably bizarre electro-pop tune channelling La Roux’s Trouble in Paradise era.

‘Too Much of a Good Thing’, a track predating much of the Your Cuckoo sessions, was written with Chas & Dave in mind, though more complex, dripping with emotion the cockney pair could only hope to imbue, and Dylan-ish harmonica. But before the love and warmth gets too cloying, we’re treated to the self-proclaimed ‘bad ending’ of the album, for those who want to skip track eleven. ‘Hold Me in the Afternoon’ is a melancholy coda that touches on the quite beautiful.

‘Salutations’, meanwhile, is an upbeat, catchy closer to the LP, rife with backing vocals ripped out of Jeff Lynne’s sound desk. Your Cuckoo manages to touch on an impressive number of themes and sounds over barely ten tracks – from Magnetic Fields bitterness (‘Girl, I Want You To Kill Me’) through to autotuned dance-pop (‘Back Seat’) and neo-jazz asides (‘Baby Blue’). Yet the whole piece feels tight; inner organs of some great, moving beast – each with their own purpose, but working in tandem. The record pays clear homage to Ash’s biggest artistic idols, steering clear of mediocre mimicry.

And he’s far from wrong calling this latest venture more ‘organic’ than the digital love letter of Love & Chemicals, marking a detour in direction for the Southampton-bred indie singer. This album feels like a real band endeavour, made for the stage where Ash’s recording software might not be enough to sate fans. Simply put, Your Cuckoo is sheer indie-pop synaesthesia.

Your Cuckoo is available on all streaming services now. If you fancy it on sweet green vinyl, you can buy the record here: https://cargorecordsdirect.co.uk/products/teenage-waitress-your-cuckoo