Operator Please: 'Yes Yes Vindictive'

Ever seen that programme Stormchasers, where a bunch of crazy tornado addicts follow maelstroms across the desert? Well, ‘Yes Yes Vindictive’ soundtracks the death defying, yet life-affirming experience of being run over by one of those giant tornados.

This probably-soon-to-be-Famous Five of Ozzie teenagers are Amandah, Ashley, Timmy (yes, really), Taylor and Sarah. Hopped up on Vegemite and sarsaparilla, ‘Yes Yes Vindictive’ displays a precocious talent for mature, structured slices of punk pop excitement.

Opening track ‘Zero Zero’ starts with a wasp in your ear, and lifts you off your feet with the shock of Amandah’s holler. Imagine Operator Please are the Arctic Monkeys, unable to decide between B-52’s or Arcade Fire covers and deciding to fight it out amongst themselves, and you won’t be far wrong. Amandah may offer the combined voices of both B-52s Cindy Wilson and Fred Schneider, but Operator Please are more of their own band than these analogies suggest. Which is all the more surprising at their age.

‘Just A Song About Ping Pong’ combines a lightspeed stream of consciousness lyric about the culinary delights of beef jerky with surf drums and a chorus lifted from a girl school playground chant. There's no point betting on the moshiness of the mosh pit when they play this live... it’s a dead cert crowd pleaser. Other future fuzz pop classics abound - ‘Cringe’, ‘6/8’, ‘Ghost’, ‘Leave It Alone’ in particular.

Elsewhere, Operator Please demonstrate a superb ear for pop melody. ‘Two For My Seconds’ for example lifts The Beatles’ ‘All You Need Is Love’ as the verse, adds strings and pits it against a double speed middle eight - ‘It's fantastic, mesmerize my memory, childhood thoughts can comfort me’. It feels like there’s a dark undercurrent you can’t quite grasp, which somehow makes the melody all the sweeter.

It’s not perfect – tracks like ‘Terminal Disease’ and ‘Yes Yes’ are clearly fillers – but don’t take that away from them. This is a great debut. Embrace the tornado.

Released on 17th March 2008 by Brille.

Written by James Farrell.