No Through Road have all the endearing quirks and flaws of something truly homemade. Adelaide songwriter Matt Banham turned his solo project into a full band years ago, but there’s still a feeling on this fourth album that the whole thing could collapse with the slightest tug on one of the many unraveling threads. Luckily, the band looks repeatedly for guidance in ’90s indie rock, a particularly anything-goes era for a genre that values scrappy heart over slick know-how.

Most songs on the sardonically titled Winner. lope along with a crush of blistering guitars in close pursuit. There’s not a drop of an Aussie accent in Banham’s gruff, off-the-cuff vocals, which he uses to spout sarcastic asides and earnest confessions. He mourns, “I can no longer find the beauty in everything” on ‘Woman’s Touch’ and notes, “I’ve been dreaming of blue skies/Instead of wind and hail” on ‘Berlin Wall’. No Through Road's songs generally deal with the widening disparity between how Banham wants things to be and how they actually are.

Whether or not you dwell on what he’s on about, Banham and co. –Dexter Campos, Nic Datson, Marcin Kobylecki and Ianto Ware – wrangle an infectious racket here. ‘Your Fall’ opens like Guided By Voices but sounds more like Archers of Loaf later on, and abrasive hooks hum alongside a raspy chorus and tumbling drums on ‘Steph’s Song’. The cute ‘Peak/Ridge’ first appeared in more Palace Brothers-inspired form on No Through Road’s debut Lo-Fi Sandwich but gets a well-deserved makeover here without losing its soul.

Not everything works so well. The noisy nine-minute finale ‘(this isn’t) Rock n Roll’ probably translates better live and ‘Girls Are The Devil’ is a bit too obvious a declaration to fuel an entire song. There’s also an odd focus on dance-punk on the bass-driven ‘Tornados’ and the indelible single ‘Party To Survive’, but both succeed despite the unlikely flirtation. For anyone waiting for Banham’s pent-up neuroses to go nuclear, ‘Explosions’ does its name justice but isn’t as amusingly bouncy as the band’s better songs.

Even if it’s somewhat hit-and-miss, Winners.’ hits ring out loud and clear while the misses, thanks to a loveable sense of geeky earnestness, are easy to overlook. The band’s loose ends prove increasingly more fascinating over time.

by Doug Wallen