The Naked & Famous
The Shipping Forecast, Liverpool
22/02/2011

The Naked & Famous’ rise to fame has been relatively swift. Their songs reached dizzying chart heights in their native New Zealand, their YouTube videos get millions of views and their single ‘Young Blood’ was featured in um, Gossip Girl. Clearly there’s something going right in TNAF’s camp. Maybe it’s The xx mirroring girl/boy interaction between Thom Powers and Alisa Xayalith or maybe everyone here tonight is a huge Gossip Girl fan. However, it’s more likely to be that their tunes are actually good.

Whilst ‘Punching In A Dream’ and the aforementioned ‘Young Blood’ are practically known the world over, the rest of their debut album is drenched in youthful blithe. From the disobedient ‘All Of This’, the uncontained guitar spasms of ‘A Wolf in Geek’s Clothing’ and the delicate earworm of ‘The Sun’, TNAF prove they’re more than just a hype band with no more than a handful of choruses to their name. They triumph where the abysmal Iglu & Hartly failed in making riotous sing-along anthems and they’ve picked up where MGMT turned their back on the world and chose to entertain nobody but themselves.

Back In New Zealand, their debut album ‘Passive Me, Aggressive You’ is almost old news – it’s been out since September – but it’s out over here in March. Do yourself a favour, buy a copy. By the time festival season rolls around, you don’t want to be the only one not singing along.

Mike Doherty