Posted on: October 5, 2022 Posted by: Kim Muncie Comments: 0

Walter Sickert and the Army of Broken Toys’ new single “Goth Beach” the latest off-kilter confection from Sickert’s wonderfully skewed songwriting imagination. Sickert and his extended band of cohorts of Boston staples boast a long catalog of prior releases endearing them to indie music aficionados and tastemakers in the United States and beyond.

The single “Goth Beach” gives listeners surf and beach music with unexpected Sickert twists. He blows away in his presentation and songwriting the idea of alternative cultures such as “goth” being exclusively downcast or depressed. It is a key to his musical appeal. “Goth Beach” is, perhaps surprisingly for some, a very positive song. It undercuts people’s possible preconceptions more than a simple 4/4 musical presentation, but Sickert’s notable for his ability to manifest that idea in an audible and even physical way. Not everyone can.

Thunderous and propulsive drumming doesn’t bash and thud away until listeners give in. Instead, the song’s percussion emphasizes the essentially celebratory nature of the track. Sickert’s vocal may seem, on first impression, to undercut that idea of celebration, but a longer and deeper listen shows the same relish and sense of play. The “lead singer gone mad” voice Sickert utilizes during “Goth Beach” never gets in the way of enjoying the song.

BANDCAMP: https://armyoftoys.bandcamp.com/album/goth-beach

It is an intensely theatrical song, as Sickert and the Army of Broken Toys are typically offering, and the music video released along with the single underscores this point. It is a feast for anyone who loves high quality cinematography and creative use of color while still ably supporting the song. Sickert doesn’t have an enormous budget to work with, but the “Goth Beach” video looks like an A-list production in every respect.

Some may quibble if the song needs to be over three minutes long. Most, however, will say you can’t have too much of a good thing in this instance. It never lags and the songwriting orchestrates the dynamics in a way that the song feels volatile and rambunctious. Many will think it is a neat “magic” trick to pull off for listeners and testifies to the flat-out musical skill of the principals involved.

Sickert & the Army of Broken Toys are over ten years down the road together and their musical and visual imagination has garnered them a loyal, if not fervent, following. It’s a measure of their appeal that they continue expanding their fan base so deep into the band’s existence while others settled into a predictable business as usual pattern. “Goth Beach” makes it abundantly clear they are far from creatively exhausted.

It all comes across in the single’s direct yet gloriously effective chorus. Sickert and the band don’t pull their punches and get you moving with several irresistible body blows that will make all but the dead sit up and take notice. It may not be the band’s shining moment, the peak, whatever, but there’s no question whatsoever that if this isn’t it, it is awfully close to peak Walter Sickert. The music world is better off for it.

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