It’s pretty fucked up how little credit Ben Cook gets for always having his pulse on where underground rock is going before it actually goes there. In his work under the moniker of Young Guv, he predicted the unkempt coolness of lo-fi guitar-pop, jangly, dreamy indie rock, and infectious pop psychedelia throughout underrated efforts going as far back as his 2012 EP with the Scuzz, A Love Too Strong, into his four-part GUV series upon signing with Run for Cover Records in 2019. Here we are in 2026, and it seems like the moment is finally ready to meet Cook at a place that celebrates his vision in his most cohesively defined creative statement yet, Warmer Than Gold.

Now presented under the matured banner of simply GUV after stepping away from making music for a few years, Cook’s latest — recorded alongside James Matthew Seven, b.n.a. JMVII, a.k.a. his heavy music collaborator in No Warning — plays with an intentionality to double as recorded document of his own life journey complimented by travels through sound where what he’s already done so well is at its foundation, yet also pulls in some very fashionable “it” styles of breakbeat Brit-pop, Madchester, and acid rave rock influence that the current crop of hardcore-adjacent cool kids of the scene decked out in windbreakers and loose fits are attempting to mine as their own. The difference is Cook, who grew up bicontinental in Toronto and London directly around this shit, has a better understanding on how to wear it authentically rather than for tastemaking trend.

He goes deep into the well with it, too. While standouts like “Let Your Hands Go” and the album’s title track are somewhat obvious larks in that regard, “Out of this Place” and “Oscillating” are wildly trippy, layering singed distortion and pop hooks that can make the mind melt right into the big beats bursting behind them. That current permeates throughout Warmer Than Gold, but it also isn’t the only facet the 45-minute listen has going on for it, with “Thorns In” and “Blue Jade” being blood-rushes of dream-pop, “Chasin Luv” further perfecting on his own expertise of power-pop, and the Earl Grey melancholia of “Seaside Story” and “Never Should Have Said” threading it all together using the cassette tape shreds of the C86 sound.

The likes of Meg Millis from TURNSTILE, Darcy Baylis, Hatchie, and a host of instrumental and backing vocal contributors joined in with Cook somewhere in all of this. Their supporting hands give the listen a very lively feel that makes the whole of the album sound not only like GUV’s most fully realized effort to date, but one with the most body and heart behind it, too. To all of the punks and hardcore dudes out there right now trying to do just that after binging on Primal Scream and the Stone Roses, your challenge going forward is for your pen to radiate it as naturally as Ben Cook does here.

Highlights: “Let Your Hands Go”, “Blue Jade”, “Oscillating”

GUV’s WARMER THAN GOLD is available now on Run for Cover Records.

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