Adam Hopper & the Wimps unveil their new hazy EP 'Remember to Have Fun’
Gently reminisce with the former Blanketman frontman on his brand new release.
Photo: Katie Foxley
Open up those curtains and wind down those windows, ladies and gentlemen, the summer breeze is here. Yet this year it blows in from the open seas to the soundtrack of Remember to Have Fun, the new EP by Manchester’s very own antifolk five-piece Adam Hopper & the Wimps.
From the introductory strums of the acoustic guitar on the EP opener My Friend Al, I’m looking for the keys of my imaginary beaten up soft top convertible, riding the wave of the Wimp’s harmonica and wanting to take to the road in an attempt to thaw out my urbanised brain. Hopper & the Wimps, however, are on a fanciful whirlwind journey into a childhood memoryland of video games and country lanes. My ears are hearing similarities to some of the songs by the kings of the Dunedin Sound, The Clean, who helped pioneer the jangle pop sensibilities that are so rife within this joyous EP.
Hopper’s wise reassurances and comforting dialogue ring true in second track Happy New Year. It carries a whimsical melody – one that seeps into your bones and plunges you into a pool of childlike sentimentality; a yearning for the good old days. The undoubtedly positive and almost sanguine outlook in this number is charming: “You can’t be sad while dancing to Twist and Shout” – oh no, Adam, now we can’t, not anymore.
Cruising onto track three, It’s What Your Friends Don’t Say That Hurts You The Most, and we’re taken back to the metaphorical playground scenes of old, comparing Christmas presents and debating the elementary politics of friendship. This is elegantly echoed on the EPs artwork, where you see innocent scenes similar to those you’d find in a Tomie dePaola book. Yet the ever-perceptive lyricism is what binds and pushes this track, contextualising the message, with Hopper offering a simple yet hearteningly true outlook on human relationships.
The EPs wistful wool-gathering continues onto the final number, with yet another breezy world being sketched into the minds of the listener that even Ray Davies would be proud of. Much like the village green, Hopper’s final proclamation on Remember to Have Fun seems to point towards the joy of youth, of nostalgic solace, of the little things, of life?
Remember to Have Fun is out now via Bingo Records.