Speedboat

Speedboat are back as Better Men, with deeper, tighter and more expansive grooves following on from last year's debut, “Split the Bill”. The new EP, “Better Men”, sees the brothers navigate everything from the Kinks to Kanye to create their distinctive playful pop songs.

Speedboat - aka Johnny and Will Griffiths aka the Blue Jean Brothers aka Musk and Hook - are just two boys, trying to be Better Men. But ask yourself, are these men better than you or I? Most likely not, on a personal level. But the fruits Speedboat bear come as a rare and succulent treat; actual vocal melody with no spoken word, chord sequences without angular dissonance, matching hair-cuts, matching boots, matching kimonos, a backline that can fit in a Samsonite suitcase. A list like this makes you think, shit, these are Better Men.

Bass and keys move together in a tight embrace, as a desperate croon brings the two closer still. Reminiscent of soft late 70’s disco, the track is held together by classic instrumentation, tight grooves and tasteful embellishments. It yearns and burns slowly, but just enough to keep those feet moving. About the track, they divulge… “Think it was the 3rd lockdown. I remember being pretty fed up, working lots and not much else, listening to the news as they “eased restrictions”, feeling frustrated that nothing was really changing. It was like being tied to the bedposts while the press teased us with their feather tickler of freedom.” “Im not really into writing songs with overt social/political commentary, but I thought if I could satirise what I wanted to say I could take the song off on tangent that was less obvious and a little more fun than just saying “Fuck Covid, fuck the Torys”. So I wrote about getting a striptease from the Statue of Liberty.” Speedboat - aka Johnny and Will Griffiths aka the Blue Jean Brothers aka Musk and Hook - are just two boys, trying to be Better Men. But ask yourself, are these men better than you or I? Most likely not, on a personal level. But the fruits Speedboat bear come as a rare and succulent treat; actual vocal melody with no spoken word, chord sequences without angular dissonance, matching hair-cuts, matching boots, matching kimonos, a backline that can fit in a Samsonite suitcase. A list like this makes you think, shit, these are Better Men.