Worldpeace DMT’s name sparks certain assumptions. When I first came across them, I pictured a London duo churning out hazy, art-school-ish scuzzy pop. In truth, last year’s debut album The Velvet Underground & Rowan proved to be a sample-forward, shout-along pop record that positioned Leo Fincham and Rowan Miles at the forefront of what some label the laptop-twee scene.
Tracks like “Love Yourself” — built on acoustic guitar strums, a rumbling digital bass, cascading video-game blips, and childlike, sing-song vocals — read as a louder counterpart to ear. Or perhaps as a brighter, friendlier answer to Bassvictim, where the Go! Team influence outweighed Crystal Castles. Yet Worldpeace DMT did not seem intent on being boxed into that trendy subgenre. Over the summer they stripped away the electronics on Flowers Powers, a playful indie-pop mixtape that included a cover of “Big Yellow Taxi” and several songs about Jesus.
Now a new LP arrives, and it neither mirrors the laptop twee of their debut nor the bleary druggy mood I had pictured. Instead, Stick Around For Tea opens with a Belle & Sebastian–esque cosplay vibe. “School is out/ And I never did like it anyways/ Stupid exams/ I never could pass them with straight A’s,” Fincham croons over stately piano chords and whimsical violin. “Do you play guitar/ Do you like rock ‘n’ roll?/ We can start a band/ I’m trying to prove my parents wrong.”
On a concept album steeped in childhood, “School’s Out!” functions as an origin tale and a bashful anthem. The brisker “Love You Too” brings back some of the digital tricks without leaning fully into them. The tilt toward live-band instrumentation continues from there. The band nods to Los Campesinos! on “Gabriel,” with its smiling refrain, “The world is a better place with you in it! Go out and be your best self! We love you, Gabriel!”
It’s the kind of album where string quartets and squealing synths convene on a ballad about rockstar dreams called “Stratocaster,” where a droning twee dirge named “Tiny Speakers” coexists with a chipper gang-vocal about spiritual searching on a track called “Ringtone.” A rich text, in other words. Listen below.
Stick Around For Tea is out now. Buy it here.
