The Thousands

Dick Diver sound like underground ’80s Australia. Arks Up recalls the best parts of the Hunters & Collectors discography: the songs gather around raw, trudging bass lines that sound best filling the pungent, carpeted rooms of old pubs.

With clever, pop songwriting, The Go-Betweens also come to mind: the accents not dropped but accentuated; the guitar work sharp, tonal, puncturing. The best example, ‘The Keys’, is a brilliant sonic interpretation of middle class Australian youth: "I call you for the keys to my house/ You live with me/ If one should leave/ It’s you."

Not that Dick Diver is one-dimensional. It’s unfair to pin them completely to past ideas, but here’s the thing: for all the history their music references, it’s the carefree, natural quality – strong songs, tuneful and lyrically clever- that prompts comparisons to those earlier bands. Like them, you can see Dick Diver’s beginnings in basements, singing off-kilter love songs through shoddy guitar amps.

It’s the integrity – what defined those great pop acts – that shines through on Arks Up. Who knows? Maybe in 30 years we’ll be referencing them.