Cast – Yeah Yeah Yeah

More than three decades on from emerging in the slipstream of Britpop’s kings, Cast find themselves enjoying a well-deserved resurgence. The Liverpool band’s renaissance has mirrored their original rise – fuelled as it is by high-profile support slots on Oasis’ mammoth reunion tour.

Now slimmed down to a three-piece of frontman and bassist John Power, guitarist Liam “Skin” Tyson, and drummer Keith O’Neill, they are back with a new album, Yeah Yeah Yeah, which shows why in their 90s heyday, they were a cut above much of Britpop’s fellow princelings.

Recorded with legendary producer Youth, Yeah Yeah Yeah is vintage Cast – showing Power has lost none of the songwriting touch first glimpsed as a junior member of The La’s. Lead single and opener Poison Vine sets the tone immediately. It’s a swaggering, groovy rock track on which the addition of vocals from soul legend PP Arnold and brass adds depth to Cast’s usual jangly indie sound.

Don’t Look Away is more classic Cast territory, marrying crowd-pleasing riffs with hints of the Indian mysticism first truly brought to British pop by fellow Liverpudlian, George Harrison. Calling Out and Free Love are more meat and potatoes fare than the intriguing openers, but fun nonetheless – if you like Cast, you’ll still be singing along heartily.

It’s on the funky Way It’s Gotta Be, which also features Arnold, that things get really interesting again. Aggressive, yet upbeat, it could soundtrack the entrance of a group of cocksure northerners into a Camden pub. The more downbeat Devil and the Deep shifts the mood again – and is somewhat reminiscent of the wistful stylings of a band from just across the Mersey, Wirralians The Coral.

Then it’s back to Britpop bangers with Weight of the World and its anthemic chorus, before the deliberative quirk of Teardrops. Finally, Birds Heading South is a wonderful, liltingly rueful closer. Dare one say there’s a hint of tourmates Oasis’s hymn to dissolute freedom, Whatever, to it?

When it’s more than 30 years since a band burst onto a scene that’s moved from hedonistic youth to a middle age of retrospective documentaries and coffee table books, it’s easy to dismiss them as living off nostalgia. Yet with Yeah Yeah Yeah, Cast prove they have plenty of life, marrying their unmistakable sound with other influences and Youth’s expert production to create an album that’s a thoroughly enjoyable listen in any era.