GUV: Warmer Than Gold

"For 18 years, Ben Cook has been making head-over-heels pop songs under a handful of similar names: Young Governor, Young Guv and the Scuzz, Young Guv. The project, recently rechristened as GUV, has outlasted Cook's time playing guitar on Fucked Up's punk operas and his stint as the frontman of Toronto hardcore band No Warning. But where other pop formalists write from a narrow frame of reference-'60s sunshine pop, , "Ticket to Ride"-Cook is a sonic mercenary, arriving at whatever genre he's into."

"The trip helped inspire his latest album, Warmer Than Gold, a swing at the ' baggy Manchester opioid chic ' he dabbled with on 's bedroom experiments in 2022. His latest is a thick slab of massive Britpop. But there are simply fewer earworms than we've come to expect. Without the hooks, Cook's tales of cosmopolitan life, romance, and dislocation can become tiring. He's searching for love again, he's found the one, he's struggling to pull away, he's traveling across the world; rinse, repeat."

Ben Cook has recorded pop music for 18 years under names including Young Governor, Young Guv and the Scuzz before adopting GUV. The music moves across styles, from Dirty Mind–era Prince pastiche to plucky synth-pop and Byrds-like country jangle. A London trip informed Warmer Than Gold, which channels Madchester, Britpop and shoegaze textures. James Matthew Seven produced the record, adding flanged acoustics, dream-pop harmonies from Hatchie, and tubthumping drum machines. Specific tracks echo the Cure and Primal Scream. The album emphasizes style and period signifiers, but a relative lack of strong hooks renders recurring themes of romance and dislocation wearisome.

Read at Pitchfork