Good Looks “Lived Here For A While”

Post-punk indie with compelling lyrics.

This is Good Looks’ second album after their debut ‘Bummer Year’, released in 2022. The quartet, from Austin Texas, are playing post-punk indie with an eighties vibe after having more of an americana sound on their first album. Comparisons could be made with Husker Du, although this is lighter and more melodic than them, and one track, ‘Broken Body’, has a slight feel of the UK band Echo And The Bunnymen. Going fast forward to the 2000s, some of the tracks have looping, driving rhythm guitar riffs similar to The Hold Steady. There are poppier numbers, though, such as the single ‘Can You See Me Tonight?’ and the album finishes with two slower, gentler tracks.

Rhythm guitar comes from singer Tyler Jordan, who has written all the tracks. Lead guitar, sometimes jangling and tuneful, but other times jarring and thus giving the music an “edge”, is played by his great friend Jake Ames. The rhythm section underpinning it all is Robert Cherry (bass) and Phillip Dunne (drums).

In 2022 Ames fractured his skull when hit by a car and this was bad enough for him to have to spend time in ICU with an uncertain prognosis. The band visited him every day and, as can happen, something good came out of the dreadful incident, with them all becoming closer. Despite having problems with speech and short-term memory Ames found that he could play guitar and sing almost perfectly. He was gradually allowed to get back to gigging and eventually contributed impressively to the album after having to re-learn some of the parts.

The album is lyrically very interesting, with much of it dealing with Jordan’s difficult relationship with his mother. In ‘Can You See Me Tonight?’, he sings “Can you see me tonight, Mama? I’m still trying to win you over” and talks of the darkness in him. She seems to be religious and flawed; ‘Day Of Judgement’ is a letter to her about a dream where he is wondering about how she would be judged at the end of her life: “The things you say are so obscene/ And they’re always backed up by the lord”. The album ends with another moving letter of regret where he writes ”Love you, I still love you, even when you fail me”.

His upbringing has caused difficulties in his relationships in the past. In the poignant opener ‘If It’s Gone’ he addresses an estranged partner who has her own problems; “I didn’t mean it like you took it, you mistake me for your past” but ends on a positive note and wishes her well. Similarly, in ‘Self-Destructor’ he mentions the help that music has given him with his demons and suggests to a friend or lover that they try to put their past behind them. However, on a positive note, Jordan, who has been in therapy for many years, seems to have found happiness with a new partner and celebrates this in  ‘Vaughn’.

Two songs towards the end have an angry left-wing political bent with ‘White Out’ complaining “It’s tax breaks for Tesla/For the workers, it’s tough love”. In addition, his sympathy for those towards the bottom of the heap comes through in ‘Vultures’, where developers buy up trailer-park land with the intention of putting up the rents on the “hard-working folks” living there.

It is so good to hear this compelling album which has come after the adversity of the accident.