‘Ripe 4 Luv’ currently exists at the top of the pile of 7”s, splits, compilations and Fucked Up records that make up Ben Cook’s back catalogue. Given his tendency to fidget and up sticks, it could soon be buried. But that's not an excuse to let a life-ruiningly catchy power-pop album pass you by.
Having put out a string of glorious pop-punk singles with Marvelous Darlings, Cook refines his love of a hook even further across the eight songs here, which bounce between Byrds worship, Teenage Fanclubisms and louche synths with nary a hair out of place.
With his voice teetering at the top of his register, Cook immediately steps away from the thrash of No Warning or Fucked Up with Crushing Sensation, setting a high bar that much of what follows clears with some ease.
With their edges roughed up just a little, Crawling Back To You and Kelly, I’m Not A Creep are fit to lace Paul Westerberg’s boots, the latter tumbling from an ebullient chorus and the protestations of its title into the skin-crawling realms of stalker wish-fulfilment fantasy.
Livin’ The Dream then winds the clock back to a hazy ‘60s, weaving together several melodies that could carry pretty good pop songs all on their own, before the record’s sole misstep: Wrong Crowd.
Something of a sore thumb, this tale of wrongly-imprisoned robber writing home glides well enough but any interest in where it’s heading will die a death much faster than its seven minute run time would initially suggest.
Still, earmark ‘Ripe 4 Luv’ as a record for this summer and prepare to return to it again and again and again long before that.
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