Skegss Pacific Highway Music

“One day, I’m gonna to get out of my own way,” shrugs Ben Reed in his raspy drawl on “Tradewinds”, the opening track of Skegss’ third album. The Byron Bay duo occupies a more thoughtful mode this time around, musing on self-made hindrances and daydreaming about escape against their signature scrappy hooks and incidental harmonies. Set to charming junkyard percussion, “I Think I Can Fly” sees Reed take his “deadly treadly” (bicycle) out into the night to get away from it all. He leans into similar themes on “Aeroplane Heart”—another song about flying off into the distance—and “Stuck in Cheyenne”, before repeating “I am so far from space, man” on “Spaceman”. Travelling along the ocean is a recurring symbol of freedom, from the sea breeze described in “High Beaming” to the invocation of the album’s title phrase as a soothing soundtrack on the closing “Kelly Heroes”. If previous Skegss albums have felt almost entirely carefree, Reed and drummer Jonny Lani ground these songs in the mounting worries of daily life. But as they brandish their cracked melodies and scuffed rhythms, there’s definitely a feeling that we’re inching ever closer to some vital relief valve. As Reed finally sings during the cathartic release of “Out of My Head”: “Just forget about it.”