BRISBANE indie band Bugs have been gathering fans and momentum in the underground for the past eights years, but Cooties could be the moment they scuttle into the mainstream.
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Album No.3, and their first release with industry support, is unashamedly pop. Frontman and chief songwriter Connor Brooker knows how to orchestrate a hook and he's not holding anything back on Cooties.
Diamond and In The Middle (of it) feature big singalong choruses straight from the early 2000s pop-punk playbook written by the likes of The Androids and Wheatus. Coming To Get Me is another made-for-radio moment led by a soaring harmony.
READ MORE: Bugs hoping to catch on with Cooties album
Mars & Venus is the album's most tender moment as Brooker sings about toxic masculinity with, "If men are from Mars and girls are from Venus/ Then I'd be much happier without a penis/ Cos my self-righteous virtue-signalling completes it/ I suppress so much more than just thoughts and true feelings."
After several years of promising to breakthrough, Cooties is the catchiest we've ever heard Bugs. They're ready to step up.