Quietly working away in the Scottish underground, Humour have already carved out their sound through a pair of EPs bristling with fuzzed-out indie rock and raucous modern emo energy, drawing from influences as diverse as Touché Amoré and Viagra Boys. Taking plenty of risks and haphazardly launching themselves between genres, Humour deliver an eclectic and emotionally charged experience with their first full length, Learning Greek.
Opening track ‘Neighbours’ sees Humour stepping up to the plate for a confident and noisy first swing, fuelled by zig-zagging post-hardcore energy. While much of the material that follows throughout Learning Greek takes more of measured slacker rock approach, ‘Neighbours’ flies out the gate with demented, screamed vocals from frontman Andreas Christodoulidis cutting through a wall of warbling distorted guitars before dropping to a detached croon for the 90s college rock style chorus. While it’s certainly a bold way to open an album, the sharp changes in tone on ‘Neighbours’ can be a little jarring at times, splitting the track into distinct chunks of lilting alternative and biting post-hardcore rather than bringing the contrasting styles together into a cohesive whole.
“When Humour let their slacker rock sound lead them into odd territory Learning Greek becomes an engaging mix of genres…”
As Learning Greek continues on, these changes in style fall into the background, becoming more subtle and more engaging. Tracks like ‘Plagiarist’ and ‘Die Rich’ have similar shifts from abrasive and harsh post-hardcore inspired sounds to laid back, fuzzy indie noise but with more of a smooth, organic feel, wandering lackadaisically between genres rather than veering wildly at twenty miles an hour over the speed limit. When Humour let their slacker rock sound lead them into odd territory, Learning Greek becomes an engaging mix of genres, sliding smoothly from Weezer to Devo to Drug Church with a through line of post-punk revival keeping everything from falling apart.
While the name Learning Greek coming from a band named Humour may sound like the setup to some absurd joke, the album actually touches on vocalist Christodoulidis’ Greek heritage, chronicling his journey of reconnecting with his roots and exploring his identity. The minute long title track ‘Learning Greek’ takes a recording of Christodoulidis and his father connecting over a Greek poem and transforms it with a fluid bass line and laid back guitar for a moving glimpse into a father and son connecting with their history. While this title track pushes this theme into the foreground, Learning Greek takes the concept of connection and weaves it throughout the album, creating a consistent and relatable emotional bedrock to build the music on top of.
Although Learning Greek can be a little jarring and inconsistent at times, Humour manage to pull off an exciting and eclectic mix of genres underpinned by a solid theme that carries the album through its more unorthodox moments. If Humour can bring together this varied a sound on their debut album without everything falling apart, then these young Glaswegian post-punks have a bright future ahead of them.
