The best thing Oasis ever did was make it acceptable for indie bands to sound big. Any reader of this site knows how dear we hold jangle-pop and C86-era stuff, but we've all also got a lot of love and tolerance for bands from Great Britain who aimed for a larger sound, especially those of the Britpop years.
New Coventry band Project Overload have a new record and the band's brand of radio-ready indie is energetic, catchy, and fun. These tunes burst out of the speakers (or headphones) with a whole lot of zest, the pop attack here a very smart and precise one. The superb "Wildfire" is punchy, think Sleeper and Garbage, while the clipped rhythmic attack of "Groovy" is even more of a rush. Modulating their sound a bit, the lush "Silhouettes" finds space for singer Emily Birtwistle to deliver one of her best vocal performances on a record full of them. Guitars from Lucas and Tom Male give numbers like "Watch Me Try" a buzzing appeal, especially when Emily joins in on Lucas' lead vocal turn. For all here that's full of the kind of fire that propelled so many New Wave of New Wave and Britpop bands from indie imprints into the mainstream, it's the gentle "Fade Away" that seems the real peak of this album. Emily Birtwistle sings this mid-tempo jangle-pop number with the sort of wistfulness we heard on material from beloved acts like The Sundays and The Cranberries.
Project Overload sound like a band destined for great things, which is not to say that they're not already making great tunes. Project Overload is stuffed with cuts that most readers of this site should be ready to embrace. Material here might even make you recall some of the best numbers from theaudience, the band whose 1998 hit inspired this site's name nearly 20 years ago. What's most appreciated is how Project Overload find a way to keep that kind of thing fresh and modern. Project Overload by Project Overload is one of the most pleasant surprises of 2026 so far.
Project Overload by Project Overload is out now. Details via Bandcamp below.
[Photo: George Davelle]