Melbourne’s The Belair Lip Bombs have always had an ear for melody and a knack for scrappy guitars, but Again feels like everything finally clicking into place. Their second full-length is tighter, brighter, and bolder than 2023’s Lush Life. It’s the sound of a band levelling up without losing what made them interesting in the first place.
From the opening bars of Again and Again, there’s no easing in. Drummer Daniel Devlin snaps into motion, bass lines tumble forward, and Maisie Everett’s voice cuts clean through the fuzz. The song kicks down the door with confidence. The band draw comparisons to The Beths or Teenage Fanclub, and those hold, but there’s something more restless here. They refuse to sit still inside any one genre box.
That refusal defines Again. It’s an album of shifting gears. One moment it’s jangly power pop (Back of My Hand), the next it’s wiry post-punk (Hey You), and before long you’re in full sing-along territory (Don’t Let Them Tell You (It’s Fair)). Yet somehow, it all hangs together. Much of that cohesion comes from Everett, who writes and sings like someone reconciling confidence with vulnerability. Her voice can sound matter-of-fact one second and gut-wrenchingly open the next. On Cinema, she twists through lines about memory and miscommunication over bright guitars and handclaps, while Burning Up drops the tempo for a quietly devastating ballad threaded with violin.
There’s audible growth in the band’s chemistry. Guitarist Mike Bradvica and bassist Jimmy Droughton play with elastic tension, stretching songs just enough to make their hooks land harder. Co-producers Joe White of Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever and Nao Anzai help the band find more space without losing their edge. Keyboards, synth loops, and Hammond organs appear throughout, but never as decoration. They expand the sound in ways that feel earned. On Hey You, a hypnotic synth line underpins the song’s jagged rhythm until everything bursts wide open. It’s one of the best moments on the record.
Lyrically, Again circles themes of self-doubt and self-assurance, often within the same song. Everett doesn’t sermonize; she wonders aloud. “If you’ve got the time,” she sings on the track of the same name, “maybe I’ll tell you why.” It’s both an invitation and a dare, capturing what makes this album work. It’s introspective without being self-absorbed, catchy without being shallow. Smiling and Price of a Man close the record with a slower, dreamier pulse, the kind of late-night reflection that lingers after the feedback fades.
I caught the band recently at Le Studio TD in Montreal opening for Spacey Jane, and they translated this energy beautifully to the stage. Their eight-song set felt less like a warm-up and more like a mission statement, with Everett’s voice cutting through the room with distinctive urgency. The rhythm section was locked in, the guitars veered into noisy bursts that gave the set real bite, and their closer Don’t Let Them Tell You (It’s Fair) had the crowd hooked even if they didn’t know the song yet. Honestly, I enjoyed them more than the headliner.
Again feels like a step toward something bigger. There’s ambition in these songs that wasn’t as pronounced on Lush Life, not a reach for stardom, but a willingness to sound like they belong on any stage they want. They’re still a guitar band at heart, but one unafraid of sheen or scope.
Australian indie rock is having a moment. Amyl and the Sniffers, Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers, and now The Belair Lip Bombs, all carrying different shades of energy but sharing that fearless directness. Where others sneer, the Lip Bombs lean in. There’s warmth here, even when the guitars get noisy, and that might be what sets them apart.
At just over half an hour, Again doesn’t waste a second. It’s concise without feeling slight, emotional without melodrama, and sharp enough to draw blood when it wants to. Everett once said she writes songs that have to make her feel something before they make the record. You can tell. Every track here has that pulse, that small electric jolt that reminds you why you fell in love with rock music in the first place.
Again is out today via Third Man Records.
Photo – Birdie Fitzgerald
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