Italian band Gee Whiz! showcase the dizzying scope of their vibrant and genre-fluid sound on their debut album How To Manage a Crisis
Having been celebrated on this site ever since the emergence and release of their debut single ‘Mr Dinosaur’ towards the end of last year, we have been enamoured with Bologna-based supergroup Gee Whiz! and the fearless and creative nature of their genre-skipping sound. The release of their debut album How To Manage A Crisis has now seen them get to fully flex their distinctive appeal and the scope and ambition of their raucous style.
The album opens with ‘Hide and Seek’, a track that serves as an introduction to the chaos and sees the band starting as they mean to go on, spurred on by whirring synths, propulsive rhythms, and a disconcerting and off-kilter vibe that is gorgeously intersected by a catchy and likeable chorus to keep things feeling light.
The aforementioned ‘Mr Dinosaur’ follows, a track that is written for the overly sensitive among us that feel overwhelmed and lost in the world, the track unfolds in a way that feels part acid trip and like part like comforting and sweet little song from a kids TV show, and it speaks to the genius of the band that they make it work in such a charming and absorbing way.
The frenetic and chaotic side of the album comes right to the fore on ‘Big Fireworks’, a nostalgic sprint of a track that is full of fuzzy textures and ideas stacked upon ideas that makes it feel vibrant and full throughout. The sci-fi feel of ‘Magic Carpets’ is a track that imagines an Earth that even aliens would flee from if they landed here (you don’t have to imagine very hard really), and makes for a neat little resistance anthem and offers hope that things can improve.
‘The Wake’ is a track that feels like it summarises the ethos of the band as a whole and addresses it in the most direct way. The rallying cry of “LET’S SING AS LOUD AS YOU CAN” comes alongside a track that makes an acknowledgement that the world isn’t great outside, and there isn’t a cause to celebrate, but music can offer a respite from all of that, and while we’re here, lost in these worlds and universes of sounds that the band create, maybe all of that can go away for a short while.
Following the post-punk inflected ‘My Own’, a track that channels the spirit of bands like The Clash and Joy Division with its snarled vocals and more straight-forward riffs, ‘Emily’ takes a more psychedelic and laid-back path, echoing the swaggering bravado of bands like The Kinks and The Doors while telling a suitably strange fairytale of a girl running away to the woods.
There is a uniquely melodic charm to the isolation and solitude of ‘Little Dan’, a track written about a titular character who preferred to spend his time alone, with its low-key feel offering a kind of reverence and respect that stands out among some of the crazier moments on the LP.
In another unpredictable sonic shift, ‘Cocktail Umbrellas’ has an unforgiving and frantic punk rock appeal to it that moves at a rapid, break-neck pace and dares you to keep up with it. The instrumentation here feels abrasive and sharp and it again offers a completely new facet to the band that seemingly have hundreds of millions of them.
By the time that ‘Goodbye’ offers a more steady and composed (at least at times) end to the album, it offers a moment to reflect on the sheer chaos and unpredictability that has filled the majority of the album. There are so many weird ideas and concepts here, both narratively and musically, but there is something at the core of Gee Whiz!, a sense of personality and tenacity that infuses it with their own DNA and makes it feel inherently their own. Regardless of what territory they stray into, it never feels like anybody but Gee Whiz!, and that is a testament to such a new project that they have put such a stamp on their identity and their sound.
