^{By Jeremy Thacker}

What’s It Like To Live With Me?, the debut album of English Budgies, is a work five years in the making. For any who are unfamiliar, English Budgies were first formed in 2019 by husband-and-wife duo Joe and Jena Vickrey. Following a handful of lineup changes, the group has settled into a nice four-person group with Sam Tucker and Matthew Minich. Together, these four have been able to create and refine an album that has quickly become one of my personal favorite releases of the year so far.

The ample collaboration and refinement that’s gone into each individual track is one of the biggest strengths of What’s It Like To Live With Me? Every song has had some serious love put into it. “Red Sand,” for example, is one that took two years of on and off to get to a point where the band liked it. Speaking of the song “Distance,” Joe told me, “We probably wouldn’t have kept playing it if [Sam] didn’t join the band, but over the last two years the song completely transformed from what it was.” Thank heavens they stuck with it, because that song is one of my standouts from the album. This isn’t to say that every song took two years though – “Gray Pill” and “Masquerade” were both songs that went from inception to final mix within six weeks.

From a sound perspective, English Budgies lean more towards alt and indie rock but genrehop throughout the album. Conversing with Joe over Instagram, he told me, “We’ve gotten a lot of ‘this song is too indie for an alt rock site/playlist/page’ so I reached out to indie people, and they’d say, ‘this song is too alt for our indie site/playlist/page’ … we’re pretty hellbent on trying to [avoid] repeating ourselves or limiting ourselves to one thing or another.”

In addition to the alt and indie tones spread throughout the album, there’s sprinklings of British punk, pop, and soul. This is a group that could slide in effortlessly next to indie acts like The Backseat Lovers or Cardinal Bloom and also with much harder acts like Citizen Soldier or even Johnny Baseball.

The genrehopping element of this album starts straight from the beginning. We open with “She Reporter,” which fans will be familiar with as it was released as a single last year. I saw an Instagram reel this morning where drummer Sam Tucker said this was his favorite song and called it “catchy as frick.” Well, those weren’t his exact words, but I don’t think I can swear here. Sorry Sam. But the point is the same, and it’s one I wholeheartedly agree with. Jena’s bass line from this song has been running through my head for three weeks now. This is followed by “Had Enough” which sounds just like the Clash. “Heartbreak News” makes a sudden shift to clean pop tones, followed by “Tomorrow,” a soulful ballad with a drum machine and some light synths. “Noreen,” which is potentially my favorite track on the record, follows these and brings back the distortion. I’m a recovering pop punk addict, and “Noreen” made me relapse. It’s so good.

What’s It Like To Live With Me? isn’t just about genre hopping though. Thoughtful lyrics and themes permeate throughout the album as well. Take “Noreen” for example. The song relates a tale of “boredom in the 2020s personified as an adventurous female being followed by an anxious narrator,” which is a sentiment that I think anyone who lived through quarantine can relate to. “Masquerade” was a fantastic reminder to let go of the past and accept help moving on from missed opportunities. Punk tends to have some of my favorite lyrics in regard to introspection and relationships, and What’s It Like to Live With Me? is a fantastic example of that.

If I were to give any criticisms of this album, I would only have one complaint: I don’t like the drum machine in “Tomorrow.” Sam Tucker is so tight throughout the album, and I missed him on that track. That’s a very subjective nitpick though and speaks more to the talent and skills of all the musicians involved more than the arrangement itself. Individually these guys are all very skilled at the instruments they play, but when they come together, they create magic.

What’s It Like To Live With Me? is an album I haven’t been able to stop listening to since it was shared with me. To borrow from Sam Tucker one more time, it’s catchy as frick. I’d highly recommend everyone go give it a listen right now, as it dropped today. You can find the album on your preferred streaming service here.

Be sure to follow English Budgies on Instagram and check out “Noreen” below!