Hans Pucket / No Drama CD
Hans Pucket's new album No Drama on CD.
Wellington, New Zealand four-piece Hans Pucket write nervy but effortlessly danceable rock songs about feeling bad. Their second full-length album, No Drama, gleefully captures the all-too-common twenty-something anxieties of talking too much and then being unable to find the right words to say.
When frontman Oliver Devlin sings, âIâm surfing a constant wave of alarmâ on the title track, itâs a compass for the album's other nine. This is inviting and relatable music for people who, despite their best efforts, feel uncomfortable about themselves, the state of the world, and their place in it.
Both lyrically and sonically, No Drama is a departure for Hans Pucket from their 2018 debut Eczema. âI realised I didnât want to write any more real heartbreak songs,â says Oliver Devlin. âWe were and still are a live band. Weâre still trying to make music thatâs catchy and people can dance to, but also really interesting to us: songs about growing up and finding how you exist in the world.â
Songs like 'My Brain Is A Vacant Space', with its blistering guitars and ebullient hooks, hone in on the feeling that you have nothing to offer â while 'Bankrupt', a fuzzed-out punk track, boasts lines like âI donât know if Iâll always feel like / I donât know what Iâm doing wrong.â Recorded with the bandâs good friend and former tourmate Jonathan Pearce of The Beths at his Auckland studio, No Drama is full of big leaps, immaculate arrangements, and a ton of immediate grooves.
âWe were very ambitious when we first started recording this,â says bassist Callum Devlin. âIntentionally, we left heaps of space in the track so we could add strings and horns. Because we were very measured and quite deliberate with the parts we had. It was a really fun process filling in the gaps.â
No Drama came together over several years, and during its creation the band added multi-instrumentalist Callum Passels to their line-up, who provided all the horn arrangements on the LP. With Pearce producing, his other Beths bandmates like Benjamin Sinclair added string arrangements while singer Elizabeth Stokes provided backing vocals. Overall itâs a remarkably eclectic record where the smooth pop of a track like 'Kiss The Moon' can coexist perfectly with the Abbey Road freakout of 'Some Good News'.
âWe didnât want to be afraid of our 15-year-old selves' influences,â says Oliver Devlin. âWe really wanted to make an album that teenage us would just be amazed by.â The result is Hans Pucketâs most sparkling and confident collection yet. While itâs danceable and fun, itâs also a thoughtful exploration of anxiety, a call for empathy in a turbulent time, and a relatable reminder that itâs hard to figure things out.
Tracklist
- My Brain Is A Vacant Space
- You Must Chill
- Misery Loves Company
- No Drama
- Honey
- The Square
- Some Good News
- Bankrupt
- Kiss the Moon
- Drag Me Through Your Heart
- I'm Not Opposed To