The Yummy Fur - Piggy Wings (LP)

The Yummy Fur never got the big-font poster treatment in their own era, yet their fingerprints are all over the 2000s indie boom. Piggy Wings, released in 2019 on Mogwai’s Rock Action Records, makes that story snap into focus. It is a lean, tart compilation that lifts the lid on Glasgow’s sharpest mischief-makers and shows how a cult band’s nervy wit and jagged hooks turned into a blueprint for what came after. If your entry point is the Franz Ferdinand connection, that is fair enough, since Alex Kapranos, then going by Alex Huntley, and drummer Paul Thomson both passed through The Yummy Fur before breaking out. But the real draw here is John McKeown’s songwriting, which still lands with a crooked grin and a sting in the tail.

Drop the needle and you get a band that prized economy and bite. The guitars are precise rather than huge, the bass lines walk with a sly swagger, and the keys dart in with oddball color that makes every chorus twitch a little. It is no accident the songs feel brisk. The Yummy Fur wrote like they had little patience for flab, so the punchlines arrive fast, both musical and lyrical. You hear it in things like Kodak Nancy Europe, where the melody bounces on a taut rhythm while McKeown leans into a hook that seems to fold in on itself, and in the prickly rush of Policeman, which still sounds like a dispatch from a CCTV-lit high street. The edges are there, but the band keeps everything danceable, a trait that later turned stadium-sized for their famous alumni.

What sets Piggy Wings apart from a random best-of is the flow. Rock Action sequences these tracks like a sprint through a late 90s Glasgow club night, the kind where the room is small, the ceiling is low, and everyone knows the words by the second chorus. The tempos trade places just enough to keep things moving, and the production, pulled from sessions across their 90s run, locks into a consistent mood. It feels handmade, and not in the nostalgic sense. More like an actual snapshot of how lean guitar music once cut through the noise with wit and angles rather than volume.

McKeown’s voice is key to that. He does not belt, he pivots. He tosses off lines with the sly timing of someone who knows that rhythm can be its own punch. That approach gives the band permission to get weird with structure, so songs break left when your ear expects a chorus, then find a hook in a stray keyboard phrase or a wiry guitar figure. There is humor in the writing, not novelty, just a wry sense that life is a little absurd and music should meet it there with a smirk and good shoes.

The historical footnotes have become part of the legend, and Piggy Wings benefits from that context. You can hear pre-echoes of the clipped funk and taut backbeats that would carry Franz Ferdinand to radio, and a thread that runs from Glasgow DIY to the international stage. Yet the compilation does not feel like a museum piece. It plays like a live wire, a reminder that hype cycles come and go but a great idea, played with conviction, never gets old. It is also a welcome chance for anyone who missed the original singles to grab a clean, well-presented edition. If you collect The Yummy Fur vinyl, this is the one that ties the strands together. If you have been hunting for Piggy Wings vinyl, it is an easy recommendation, especially if your shelves already hold the Glasgow canon.

For those browsing a Melbourne record store, or scrolling late at night to buy The Yummy Fur records online, consider this a nudge. The songs are short, the jokes land, and the performances have that springy tension that makes you turn the volume a notch higher than planned. Among The Yummy Fur albums on vinyl, Piggy Wings is the friendly door, the place where the singles, B-sides, and cult favorites share a room and talk to each other. It rewards front-to-back plays, then invites you back in to chase the little details hiding in the corners.

Spin it next to any of the era’s bigger names, and it holds its ground. Maybe that is the enduring charm of this band. They never sounded like they were trying to win anything. They sounded alert, amused, and ready to bolt off in a direction only they could see. Piggy Wings catches that feeling and hands it over intact, which is exactly what a great compilation should do. If your local shop has a copy filed in alternative, grab it. If you are trawling for vinyl records Australia side, do the same. Either way, it will make the next bright day feel a little sharper, the next walk a little quicker, and your shelves a lot cooler.