Phantastic Ferniture Made Your Song of Summer
The very first time I heard the lead single, “F***in ‘n’ Rollin” off the self-titled debut record from Phantastic Ferniture, I declared to all in earshot that it was the song of the summer. It’s the kind of song you want to hear on repeat, whether you’re driving fast with the windows down or dancing alone in your bedroom. Phantastic Ferniture features Australian singer-songwriter Julia Jacklin, and Elizabeth Hughes and Ryan K Brennan, and their self-titled LP gives us the kind of heady pop rock that makes us want to jump around, uninhibited, but also to cry and go write in a journal. It is sensitive and feeling, catchy and melodic. Jacklin had already begun exploring the pain and longing of coming of age and self-doubt and toxic relationships on her standout 2016 debut Don’t Let the Kids Win. With this collaboration, she expands on it through a loud garage rock lens to an incredibly satisfying effect.
Phantastic Ferniture all began with a group hug. Formed after a night out to a bar with friends in celebration of Jacklin’s birthday, the band’s LP has the feel of a group of people who know each other well and have a blast together. There is an ease to these songs, like they poured right out of them, maybe a few beers in. Songs like “Uncomfortable Teenager” and “Gap Year” straddle youth and adulthood, uncertainty and insecurity and the yearning to grow up and gain independence.
Other notable moments from with “Take It Off,” which seems to saunter in coolly and unaffected, and the energized “Bad Timing,” which listens like it’s busting out of a bedroom window in the middle of night, without permission. It’s urgent and wild, with a solid backbone of retro harmonies and percussion fit for grooving to in a dark, sweaty room. Driving basslines and Jacklin’s shimmering vocal harmonies lend the songs on Phantastic Ferniture a compelling combination of vulnerability and coolness.