While it’s not uncommon for the rise of indie bands to feel more rapid than other types of music, there’ll be a lot more made of how The Goa Express’ has been prophesied. They found themselves featured in Netflix’s Bank Of Dave earlier this year, performing at Burnley’s Turf Moor stadium, and inevitably setting the waterline for how far the indie machine deigns them to rise. They’re a good way off that just yet, but the audience for a Britpop throwback hasn’t diminished (somehow). And when they’ve spent all of 2023 capitalising on their movie-star momentum, racking up road miles and sufficiently locking in their ‘indie darling’ status, a December release for their debut is more like an early start to the main event in the coming year.
Granted, that’s entirely through the lens of ‘this band is popular, ergo will be big’; it’s got nothing to do with the output itself. As alluded to earlier, The Goa Express aren’t pushing the boat out in terms of musical inspiration, generally anchored to the ‘90s safety net that a lot of indie music sees fit to default to. Not that that’s inherently bad, but a band like this could’ve existed a decade ago in this exact form, and the general nonplussed reaction to what they’re putting out wouldn’t change. So yeah, it’s not inherently bad, but the fact that so much of it assimilates into the miasma could fool anyone.
There’s also the fact that everything about The Goa Express seems to be pushing them in this exact direction. They’re from a northern English town which, in itself, might as well be shorthand for how these precise flavours of indie and Britpop are utilised. The Stone Roses; The La’s; The Psychedelic Furs; they’re all the bread-and-butter touchstones upon which music like this is reliant, and from which The Goa Express display a reluctance to branch out from. For as well as they might be able to engage with it, songs like Good Luck Charm or Talking About Stuff have the purpose-built feel of for-the-masses indie-rock, among which there’s little else to speak of. They’re positively raring to go for Saturday sport montages and Glastonbury B-roll soundtracks; that’s the overwhelmingly anodyne vibe this album is awash with.
So what do The Goa Express have going for them that’s projected such a major springboard in the months ahead? Well, the key factor seems to be energy, and how, despite all else, this is a very spirited album in how it feels. It often seems to be a boon for younger indie bands, and The Goa Express definitely get their own mileage from it, in how charged and sprightly most of these songs will be. And y’know, there is likability to be found there, albeit in the sense that they’re leaning on a brand of indie throwback that actually feels worth exploring. That said, the overblown, Oasis-esque maximalism in the production isn’t always their best friend, when it can emphasise the more homogeneous aspects that find them really beginning to puff out after a while. The overall weight of the album doesn’t really match how light and lithe the band want to be, and thus lacks some necessary punch in a lot of places.
At least when it hits, the flickers of The Goa Express’ perceived appeal come through rather forcefully. It’s Never Been Better might be an absolute aural onslaught in how loud and far forward literally everything is mixed, but there’s a pleasant jangle to retain form and actually empower its Britpop melodies well. Similarly, the melding of strings with the militant bass throb of Can’t Stay Quiet makes for one of the album’s more interesting soundscapes, if only for how much more they’ll cut into the track rather than provide auxiliary grandeur. At those points—despite feeling like an instance of The Goa Express working with what they’ve got above all else—there’s a bit more character and personality to found, even in just tiny flecks. It’s just a shame the rest of the album struggles to follow suit, between sound lodged between frustrating immobility and a total lack of staying power, and writing that’s ripped directly from the most obvious sources imaginable.
All of that comes from the perspective of knowing where the limitations of this style lie, which doesn’t really tend to play into prospects of success. Not in indie music, anyway, and that might just be the greatest stroke of luck The Goa Express will have. The ones who’ll be gravitating the most to this aren’t clamouring for originality in their music, as much as a hit of either nostalgia or familiarity that The Goa Express are more than equipped to deliver. But beyond that…there’s very little, and it’s the reason that so many bands like this fail to maintain a longterm foothold. More come around, the bottleneck gets narrower, and it becomes necessary to cut back in order to get anything done. Now, that’s not to say The Goa Express will meet that particular fate—the time may come when they’re confident and comfortably entrenched enough to really fly off the handle—but that’s not showing itself here. As of now, the limits of The Goa Express already seem to be in view.
For fans of: Supergrass, The La’s, The Stone Roses
‘The Goa Express’ by The Goa Express is released on 1st December.
Words by Luke Nuttall
