Album Review: Cub Sport’s ‘Jesus At The Gay Bar’ marks soothing transition to euphoric pop sound
The perfect record to groove to over the long Easter weekend.
Cub Sport’s Jesus At The Gay Bar cements an exciting new direction for Australian group, unapologetically swapping past feelings of shame towards celebration and pure euphoria.
It’s been a slow but steady rise for Tim Nelson, Sam Netterfield, Zoe Davis and Dan Puusaari over the past decade.
Their most recent LP Like Nirvana (2020) reached No. 2 in Australia, but they’re gaining fans globally ahead of a planned tour in the UK and US.
Their latest album solidifies a joyful pop sound – the perfect record to groove to over the long Easter weekend.
The unforgettable title stems from a 2021 poem of the same name by Jay Hulme, depicting actual Jesus Christ visiting a gay bar, approached by a young LGBTQ+ boy struggling with his queerness.
He “beg[s] to be healed”, but is told “there is nothing in this heart of yours that ever needs to be healed”.
Pre-release tracks ‘Always Got The Love’ and ‘Replay’ start proceedings; offering up an honest portrayal of past trauma, now pointing towards a more joyous future, which only develops throughout the rest of the record.
The faster pace of ‘High For The Summer ft. Shamir Main’ makes for an instant classic club banger, before the more sensitive ‘Keep Me Safe’, their newest single, talks about closeted relationships.
Nelson has previously said the track is an ode to the start of his relationship with bandmate Netterfield at the age of 17, which is immediately obvious at first listen.
“I wanted this song to capture the magical feeling of the inside of our secret world, as cheesy as that may sound.”
The pair married in 2018, with Nelson explaining of Keep Me Safe: “I wrote ‘Keep Me Safe’ about the very start of Sam and I getting together when we were 17.
“The whole relationship was a complete secret, which made life kind of complicated but it was the happiest I’d ever been.”
He adds: “I wanted this song to capture the magical feeling of the inside of our secret world, as cheesy as that may sound.”
‘Songs About It’ follows a similar theme, exploring queer love through a piano-house rave-up that’s thick with the heat of a summer dancefloor, following the slower pace of chilled-out Zoom.
The haunting echoes in ‘Beg U,’ accompanied with the lighter building drum beat in the background give a real clarity in feeling, with the lyrics “I think part of me is ready for the world”.
‘Hold’ and ‘Magic In U’ give some of the album’s brightest moments, whilst penultimate track ‘Yaya’ plays with references towards the title, as Nelson sings, “I prayed and I prayed and I tried and I tried.”
It reminds listeners of the complex religious background of the Cub Sport record one last time, before the loud thumping and repetition in ‘Magic In U’ makes for a more simplistic but clarified finish.
After 10 years together, this has to be the band’s best work yet. They manage a no-skips pop record full of reflection and an exciting hint towards the more anthemic sound they’re clearly eyeing up for the future.
Jesus at The Gay Bar is out 7 April . Tickets for Cub Sport’s upcoming UK tour can be bought here.