The Cords: The Cords
All Formats Available
Released 26th September
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The Cords, sisters Eva and Grace Tedeschi, release their eagerly awaited self-titled debut album via Skep Wax and Slumberland.
It’s not often that there is so much excitement or expectation around a bands debut album these days, at least not in world of DIY Indie. The Cords debut however has been eagerly anticipated by a huge swathe of those in the Indie Community following just a cassette and a flexi single released so far (both of which sold out in a matter of hours).
The Cords are teenagers, Eva and Grace Tedeschi hailing from Greenock, Scotland. They played their first gig in 2023 supporting The Vaselines which led to plaudits from the likes of a number of respected Scottish music types including Duglas T Stewart (BMX Bandits), Andrew Tully (Rote Kapelle, Jesse Garon and the Desperadoes) and filmmaker Grant McPhee (Big Gold Dream, Teenage Superstars) to name a few. They’ve since been honing their skills playing shows with the likes of Camera Obscura, Belle and Sebastian, BMX Bandits as well as upcoming bands like The Umbrellas and Chime School. They were even invited to record a session for Riley and Coe on 6 Music…
It feels fitting that the band have signed to Skep Wax in the UK and Slumberland in the US. If ever there was a perfect match… New Order and Factory; Depeche Mode and Mute; Cocteau Twins on 4AD; The Cords and… well, you get the idea.
So why has this been so anticipating and why have The Cords been welcomed so warmly by those who (mis)spent their formative years in bed sits across the UK? Teens that would have been listening to John Peel religiously, pouring each week over the NME, Melody Maker and occasionally Sounds… I guess it’s because the teen sisters have come to this themselves, the Sarah Records DIY aesthetic, with fold around sleeve and inserts etc whilst soaking up their parents record collections (The Cure, BMX Bandits and Nirvana I believe). What they’ve done to date hasn’t been cynically calculated or done as marketing, it’s been a pure love for a scene/movement or, as they put it they’re just, ‘A Scottish, jangle, DIY indie pop sister duo who channel classic C86 straight from the heart’. The Cords have taken familiar ingredients from what’s gone before and created something utterly fresh. Older indie fans may hear echoes of The Shop Assistants and Tiger Trap but will hear something else too: a yearning, dreamy melodic power that takes the songs into darker, stranger places.
For me the first time I heard the single, and opening track to the album, Fabulist, I was taken back to hearing The Primitives for the first time. I can vividly remember laying on the living room floor, a 16 year old watching the video to Really Stupid on Whistle Test on a Tuesday evening. Obviously younger pop fans won’t care about old reference points such as this: what they will hear is the sound of two young women doing something utterly exciting: playing loud guitar and loud drums, creating immediate and infectious pop tunes
Nearly 40 years on from hearing/seeing The Primitives for the first time I’m taken back as I listen to The Cords album which fizzes and bursts with youthful explosion. In 1986 the Coventry quartet were the antidote to the charts bloated by the post Live Aid resurgence of ‘heritage’ acts and labels cashing in on the first throes of the CD revolution. Now, in 2025 The Cords sound free, reminding us that pop music, played right, is expressive, liberating, joyful and deeply personal, today’s antidote to the generic over produced pop fare that fills what is, for better or worse, ‘the charts’ nowadays.
The album zips along with 13 tracks in just over 30mins, half of which don’t last more than a couple of minutes. As you’d expect from the influences, there’s plenty of ‘ba ba ba’s’ amongst the breathless vocals, scuzzy jangling guitars, and solid drumming throughout. There isn’t a ‘weak’ track on the record, which is punky, is Indie Pop, is shoegaze… It’s hard to pick ’standout’ tracks as it’s all so bloody good. If I was pushed, I’d go for the closing track and recent single, When You Say Goodbye, which to my ears (and probably only my ears) sounds like an unholy union of Johnny Thunders and Tallulah Gosh. A heart-rending pop song: it’s deeper, heavier and more immersive than much of the album, but just as catchy… it also serves as a reminder to go back to the start and listen to the album all over again.
Once upon a time Postcard Records may have claimed to be “The Sound of Young Scotland” but it’s time for that baton to be passed to The Cords
Catch The Cords on Tour
25 Sep: SHEFFIELD Sidney & Matilda
26 Sep: LONDON Betsey Trotwood (sold out)
27 Sep: LONDON Rough Trade West (afternoon)
27 Sep: LONDON Betsey Trotwood (evening) (sold out)
29 Sep: RAMSGATE Music Hall
30 Sep: EXETER Cavern
1 Oct: BRISTOL The Croft
2 Oct: COVENTRY Just Dropped In
3 Oct: MANCHESTER Kamera
4 Oct: EDINBURGH Indiepop all-dayer
5 Oct: GLASGOW Mono
The Cords can be found via their LinkTree
All words by Iain Key. See his author profile here or find him via his LinkTree
Listen to Iain chatting to The Cords here
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