I would imagine that The Pool Whales would count as rebel twee poppers. They aren’t really very fluffy and yet they probably still wear woolly cardigans. Their self-titled debut has its moments but equally betrays a lack of attention to detail that does not bode well for their future.
On the plus side, Adam Balbo is a convincingly laidback singer and the songs, for the most part, are actually quite good with a neat turn in downbeat humour evident. However, on the minus side, the sound quality – and awkward musicianship - of many of these songs transcends lo-fi and takes you right into badly recorded demo territory. I have no idea why any band would release any of their songs with so many technical faults but, then again, perhaps no one cares about that anyway. It is the time of the iPod generation after all.
This mini album is available for download from Bandcamp.