Bub: Can't Even (digital outlets)

Singer, songwriter and guitarist Priya Sami made a brief, high profile appearance with siblings Madeline and Anji as Sami Sisters with their Happy Heartbreak! album over a decade ago.

(Not to be confused with the fictional Katene Sisters of Annie Crummer, the late Nancy Brunning and Lisa Crittenden created for a Shortland Street episode and who went top 5 with their sole single Keeping Up a Love Thing in 1993.)

Auckland's Bub fronted by Sami have considerable road miles and experience. With Sami (more recently in Trip Pony and Dateline) are drummer/synth player Alex Freer (Artisan Guns, Tiny Ruins, various jazz and rock sessions) and bassist Daniel Barrett (Sherpa, Racing).

In a brief note, Bub singer, – says Can't Even is the album “I wish I had the confidence to do at 17. But I wasn't a skinny white man. Well I'm over that now!”

That self-assurance is evident when – with the Beths' Liz Stokes on trumpet – Bub revisit her2005 song from the Play It Strange high school songwriting competition.

It's Mrs Julian Casablancas about her teenage crush on the Strokes' singer-songwriter, but in a spoken word coda now adds an open letter to Casablancas saying she's “older now and wiser”.

Then, with no regrets, closes with something unexpected and movingly heartfelt.

Interestingly, Bub's style isn't their self-described “doo-wop punk” but economic, melodic songs (the Cars an acknowledged reference) which reach into New Wave (New Amsterdam, the chunky Jeez Louise) and scuffed-up pop (the bristling King of Wands, compelling Girl and droning shore-gaze Dreams).

Beyond that though is Sami's ambitious songwriting which come to the fore right at the end of the album with Rain On My Parade and especially the minimal Bored which is ripe for a remix.

These confirm her command of soulful R'n'B.

The Sami Sisters were, at best, a footnote and Bub – word is it stands for Break Up Band which may refer to its origins rather than its impending demise --might be just passing through.

But Priya Sami is in for the long haul and, with the lyrically astute and musically diverse Can't Even, has reasons for belated self-confidence.

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You can hear and buy this album at bandcamp here