Caterpillars – J W Schuller (reviewed by Dave Franklin)

Caterpillars is the result of clever and rewarding decisions, from the artist’s choice to put something back into the community and play volunteer gigs which in turn opened up a whole new thought process regarding subject matter to the sonic choices that define the song. The first resulted in No Mud In Joyville, a set of songs which explores and celebrates our all too brief time on this earth, the latter took the song out of the realms of just another guy with a guitar and turned it into a brassy, breezy and wonderfully optimistic indie-pop song.

It seems that these days that you can’t move for earnest indie troubadours working on their first album and their first beard in every bar you wander into, but Caterpillars is way out of their league. It is a song of hope and aspiration and it kicks home its message to a Mariachi accompaniment whose gentle swoops and crescendos are a brilliant balance to the frantic nature of the chord work that sits above it. The result is a wonderful blend of energy and grace, pace and purpose. Throw in a brief and cool, noodling guitar solo and you realise that J W has knocked it out of the park with this little gem.