ALBUM REVIEW: The Spook School – Could It Be Different?

Slumberland Records

Released: 26.01.18

The Spook School’s third album opens with an emotive monologue by Josie Long, bursting into a furiously catchy assault on an abusive ex in Still Alive (sample lyric: “fuck you, I’m still alive”).

By the time it concludes, the fire has faded into an exhausted sepia-tinged refrain of “I just can’t help looking back and wondering”. Thus, Could It Be Different?’s disparate bookends sum it up beautifully. The record boasts killer examples of their trademark sparkling pop, as on Less Than Perfect and I Only Dance When I Want To, but it also aches with nostalgia. Bad Year in particular is probably their saddest ever song.

A brilliant record, and another highlight in a discography which gets more wonderful by the year.