Yuck. Yes that's right. That's what Alpine think about it all. Well, actually, it's just a quirky album name, that fits hand in glove with the indie pop band's particular personality and style.
Their first album A is for Alpine was released back in 2012. It contained addictive tracks like Gasoline and Hands, which helped the album debut at number 11 on the ARIA Album Chart. Fast forward to June 2015 and Alpine are finally ready to give the world their long awaited follow up.
Alpine.
"It's definitely been about time," says Lou James, one half of the band's vocal team says. "It's funny because it feels like, from Australia's point of view, it's been such a long time but for us its only really been a year. We finished touring the States the end of November 2013. So then we pretty much had three months break and then we got stuck back into writing."
On tour to promote lead single Foolish, the album sees Alpine investigating reactions to a few first world problems that have made them feel yuck. Things like strange kisses, clashing egos and difficult dates. It is also a reflection of the band growing up.
"The conversation that we started with A is for Alpine was a reflection of how we were feeling in our early 20s. Now, with Yuck, it was our late 20s, and there is such a transition," James says.
"I think when you're younger things were really difficult but you don't really know how to comprehend them. Everything feels quite new and abstract and absurd. And then when you get older you know yourself more. But then there are more hard-hitting realities, and you're able to communicate it a bit more clearly because you know yourself better."
The idea of progression, from young adulthood into adulthood and as a band who has slowly worked their way into being the kind of act Rolling Stone labelled a band to watch back in 2013, is important to James.
"We've been lucky enough to have this really organic step forward, and up," James says. "But it's been a nice balance. It hasn't been too out of control. I think everything that we do is slowly going in the right direction. I think in doing that, I'm hoping that it means that we'll stick around a lot longer."
Even though their avantgarde approach to pop makes it hard to define exactly where Alpine fit into the music landscape, Yuck is precisely the album the band wanted to write. "You can't really pigeon hole us and our sound," says James. "We're kind of like the in-betweeners at school. We're not really cool, we're not weirdos, we're just these six personalities who are writing music that we really love, and hopefully other people love too."
With all of the band in tune with what the album was about, from the songs they were producing, to the album artwork and title, "There was a bit of pressure with this album to get it out really soon," James says. "But we are all really happy with what we created. We were all able to give it the final tick of approval. Which is so hard, because anything that you create it can never really be finished."
ALPINE
With: Pearls and Olympia
Where: ANU Bar, Acton
When: 7.30pm, July 8
Tickets: $24.82 from ticketek.com.au