No Thievery, Just Cool is the fourth album in as many years from Glaswegian jangle-pop outfit U.S. Highball, comprised of lifelong friends Calvin Halliday and James Hindle. This time around, the boys decided to put the neighbourhood to work, enlisting a host of friends and external collaborators to beef up their characteristically propulsive pop nuggets. Jacob Ewald - frontman of recent tourmates Slaughter Beach, Dog - duets with James on a soaring version of The Mr. T Experience’s Big, Strange, Beautiful Hammer, and Manda Rin - one third of Glasgow indie legends Bis - lends her trademark emphatic yelp to the effervescent Tiny Partick. As ever, U.S. Highball have fashioned a densely-populated lyrical world that’s at once surrealistic and chock-full of kitchen sink detail, with songs frantically ushering the listener from Buchanan Street to Boulevard Saint-Michel in the space of a single hook-stuffed chorus. Throughout the half-hour of power that comprises No Thievery, Just Cool, what ultimately stands out is the band’s steadfast and unwavering commitment to melody above all. Whether crafting breezy college rock rippers or 80s-indebted slices of eccentric new wave, in the universe of U.S. Highball, the chorus is king.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
A1. See You In Hell
A2. London Colin
A3. Adjacent Donovan
A4. Tiny Partick
A5. Irresponsible Holiday
A6. Nicola

Side B
B1. Big, Strange, Beautiful Hammer
B2. Rochelle
B3. Paris 2019
B4. Picnic At Doughnut Groyne
B5. Marjorie Says
B6. Out Of Time