On the richly executed, emotionally resonant terrain of their debut album, Drive to Goldenhammer, Nottingham quartet Divorce head to a fictionalised town that, they say, is meant to symbolise the warmth and humanity they’ve always found within their East Midlands motherland. Goldenhammer might not be real, but the record’s affectionate idiosyncrasies certainly are. These are big-hearted songs full of personal exploration and finding your feet, whether on the yearning of Lord – an ode to an inaugural queer relationship – or the tongue-in-cheek industry skewering of All My Freaks (“You and all of your toys are so deluded”).
Central to Divorce’s heart-on-sleeve charm is the pairing of co-vocalists Tiger Cohen-Towell and Felix Mackenzie-Barrow. Both storytellers with an ear for a pleasingly odd detail and a delivery that leaves it all on the stage, they’re the endearing fulcrum at the centre of a band that musically bend all sorts of ideas – country; indie; heavy, shouty catharsis on Karen; Americana sweetness on Parachuter – to their own shape.
Having recently supported Bombay Bicycle Club and Everything Everything, Divorce offer shades of both those bands’ approach to the smarter corners of commercial indie: the nuanced, wide-eyed romance of the former mixed with the nerdy playfulness of the latter. But Drive to Goldenhammer displays a depth to the songwriting that feels hard-earned, exciting and entirely their own.
Drive to Goldenhammer is out now via Gravity/Capitol. Divorce tour the UK until 9 April
