New Releases: Polite Company

Meet my new favorite album of 2024! Please Go Wild is the debut from Polite Company, a project of Alan Gregg, a long-running New Zealand indie pop figure (he used to play in a band called the Mutton Birds, and in 2002 had a terrific well-below-the-radar project called Marshamallow, whose one-off self-titled LP is also worth checking out). 

The album is full of charming jangle pop that conjures the Pernice Brothers, and maybe latter-day Teenage Fanclub, but Gregg livens things up with some more extravagant, McCartneyesque piano-driven baroque pop and detailed, affectionate character-study lyrics reminiscent of Fountains of Wayne. Fans of other indie acts I've extolled in this space like Dot Dash and the Boys With The Perpetual Nervousness will be pleased to discover this one. Check it out on Bandcamp!