The Gnomes: The Gnomes [Album Review]

The Gnomes
The Gnomes
Dog Meat Records [2025]

“Instant hooks, live-room energy, and zero filler—your next favorite Aussie band starts here.”

Album Overview: The Gnomes began as Melbourne musician Jay Millar’s home-recording outlet, just a teenager writing, playing, and tracking everything himself under the original name Gnome. After dropping a run of DIY releases on his Goblin Records Bandcamp and building buzz with January’s I Like It EP, it became clear the project needed a real band behind it. Once Millar linked up with fellow Frankston players Ned Capp, Olly Katsianis, and Ethan Robins (musicians he knew from the local Singing Bird Studios scene) the shift from Gnome to The Gnomes came naturally. Suddenly it wasn’t a solo project anymore; it was a full-force four-piece.

Their self-titled debut captures that transition perfectly. Tracked mostly live, the album leans on the spark and speed that come from four musicians locked into each other in the same room. Millar’s early demos still shape the songs, but the finished record benefits from a more collective push giving tighter rhythms, louder edges, and a sense that these tracks were built to be played onstage. The Gnomes feels like a band hitting the ground running: lean, catchy, and ready for bigger rooms.

Musical Style: The album rides on brisk guitars, crisp rhythms, and an obvious love for classic beat-driven rock. There’s plenty of ’60s snap in the DNA, but it’s dressed up with modern garage grit. The songs fall somewhere between jangling guitar pop and sweat-soaked club energy; simple, melodic, and made to move. Reverb touches, bright hooks, and a sturdy rhythm section help round out a sound that’s both familiar and freshly charged.

Evolution of Sound: Because Millar launched Gnome as a solo project, The Gnomes marks a noticeable jump from bedroom recording to full-band identity. Opening the songs to three more players lets the arrangements breathe and widen, adding new textures and instincts that weren’t possible before. While they’re already floating ideas for album number two, this debut intentionally documents where they are right now. Tight, unified, and discovering just how far they can stretch.

Artists with Similar Fire: If you dig the punch of Sharp Pins, the melodic bite of The Prize, or the punkish pop snap of The Unknowns, this record will hit immediately. Fans of The Safes’ retro power-pop spark, Philadelphia’s The Interpreters’ hooky British-invasion swagger, Detroit’s The Singles’ high-energy garage-pop polish, or Paul Orwell’s vintage fire will find plenty to love, too. There are nods to early Kinks and mid-’60s Beatles, but the attitude sits squarely within the modern Australian guitar scene.

Pivotal Tracks: “Better With You” kicks the door open with tight energy and sets the tone right away. “I’ll Be There” and “I’m Not the One” show off the band’s melodic instincts, while “Stung” dips into a hazier, stretched-out groove that breaks the album open at just over six minutes. “Flippin’ Stomp” brings pogo-ready bounce straight out of a packed pub, and “Time Will Tell” adds some jangling lift. The new full-band version of “I Like It” smartly ties Millar’s solo past to the group’s present. “Won’t Quit You” shakes things up with a darker ’90s-leaning guitar feel, and closer “Play With You” ends everything with gritty, rhythm-heavy punch.

Lyrical Strength: Lyrically, the record stays grounded and direct—quick hits of tension, excitement, and everyday emotion. Millar’s writing favors immediacy over metaphor, which fits the band’s forward-motion style. These songs feel conversational and unfiltered, like thoughts caught in real time rather than polished into something distant or abstract.

Final Groove: The Gnomes is a confident, fast-on-its-feet debut—packed with hooks, full of momentum, and shaped by a young band eager to show exactly what they can do together. It’s the sound of a solo project leveling up into something sharper and more dynamic, with enough personality to stand out in Australia’s crowded guitar scene. If this is where they’re starting, the real fun will come with where they go next.

THE GNOMES LINKS
Instagram | Bandcamp | Dog Meat Records