The Bats: Corner Coming Up

Approaching 40 years since the release of Daddy’s Highway, and in 2025 it’s not outlandish to suggest that The Bats are making the best music they ever have.

Maybe it’s the longevity behind Robert Scott, Kaye Woodward, Paul Kean and Malcolm Grant’s capabilities to reach the peak of their powers all these years later, which has crystallised their status as one of the most consistent across the independent music landscape.

A large chunk of The Bats existence has been spent hiding in plain sight. Take 2020’s Foothills – largely unnoticed in what was one of the year’s most understated releases. Without doubt the shining beacon of all things jangle, while this decade has seen many trying to emulate Foothills’ stateliness, it’s awoken The Bats to show the rest how it’s done with their excellent follow-up, Corner Coming Up.

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It’s another high-watermark from the Christchurch-born group, and while The Bats have always been a pleasant encounter, it’s the nuance that has set them apart from their contemporaries. Corner Coming Up is no different, and with all its pomp and subtle pivots, it sees them cover yet more new ground. Weighed down by the doubt we are faced with every day, The Bats don’t try and untangled life’s modern day complexities, instead embracing them through song, and the results are all the better for it.

The exquisite, gently picked opener, The Gown, is enveloped in brooding synths that find The Bats sunken in gloom and contemplation (“Making the most of every day we have”), which is the overarching theme throughout. Song for the End (“In time we hope to get it right”) and the slow crawl of Tidal (“We’ll try this way to make it through / In this crazy time”) are also caught in heavy weather, but The Bats manage to overcome it and rise to victory in the process.

Two vital parts of said victory are Lucky Day and Smallest Falls. Both finely crafted, unhurried songs that rubs against the corners of the mind, they dovetail perfectly with the sleepy-eyed jangle-rock of A Line to the Stars, and as Scott sings, “There is no right / There is no wrong / Just the words in of a song”, it’s magic out of the Forster / McLennan songbook.

There’s those riding-on-the-crest-of-a-wave moments that The Bats have always provided, too. The title track sees them moving through the gears with grace, led by the rhythm section of Kean’s hooping basslines and Grant’s skittish drums, which have ultimately been the foundation on which this band was built.

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Then there’s A Crutch A Post. One of two outliers, Scott throws a curve ball with a gnarly guitar solo, and it’s this parting of the storm clouds that makes way for Corner Coming Up’s pivotal moment in Nature’s Time. A gorgeous vocal trade-off between Scott and Woodward, it’s the kind of song written exclusively by bands who have been around as long as The Bats. (The line, “Find your feet on ground / Train your ears to the sky / Don’t forget to wonder/ Don’t forget to learn”, reaching the heart of the record.)

And that’s where The Bats remain on the piano-led Eyes Down. Like A Crutch A Post, it’s another moment where they continue to pull new tricks from the bag, this time with something that could have been orchestrated in a church.

Quite the contrast to Loline. Saving their best for last, it’s hands down one of the finest songs written this year and something that would shine on a Best Of collection, as band pull together their finest moments for something akin to bliss in a bottle. Which is effectively what Corner Coming Up is. While they have many imitators, even at their most thematically downcast, there’s no one making jangle-oriented music as good as The Bats. Corner Coming Up, another crucial chapter in the Dunedin sound story, for which The Bats remain the chief protagonists.

Corner Coming Up is out now via Flying Nun. Purchase from Bandcamp.