| ⭐⭐✨ |
A band that has always promised, shame has made a point of never treading old ground. Even if the temptation burns, they have found a way consistently to bend expectations for their listeners. When shame first hit the scene, they possessed a certain naivete that endeared their music. Undulating between fuzzy post-punk and youthful indie rock, it was a mildly clichéd peek into the future of a band full of potential. When they landed on a newfound sense of maturity on their 2021 record ‘Drunk Tank Pink’, it earned them a lot of instantaneous love from general underground music fans. All of a sudden, bands like Fontaines D.C. and Protomartyr had real competition. 2023’s Food For Worms was another artistic stamp from the band. One that felt genuinely close to something great. A sense of menace stained the performances, which often moved at whatever pace they could be bothered to muster. It was time to see shame as the ever-evolving act that they were shaping up to be.
When the lead single and title track to this was teased, I walked away from it a little shell-shocked. Weirdly enough, it matched the very Blur-esque cover art that accompanied it. However, I was obviously missing a lot of context. The autotuned, monotone delivery on the chorus sounded like a different vocalist entirely. The music was driving; propulsive. It appeared to lack any of the nuance of their prior two works. Not inherently a bad thing, maybe it would make more sense once the full picture had been revealed.
Indeed it did. Because not only is Cutthroat the band’s most rudimentary album to date, it is also their most inconsistent. Gone are many of the calculated strokes that blessed their music in the past, replaced by a totally calloused approach to writing otherwise very common-denominator post-punk. Either the riffs and distortion do most of the heavy lifting, like on the stagnant ‘Cowards Around’. Or the playing is just so flabby and non-descript that it could almost be mistaken for AI music, like on the rather drab ‘Quiet Life’. The tracklist sometimes throws a complete head scratcher into the fray, like the borderline parody that is ‘Lampião’. A track that is such a sore thumb it actually makes me question the band’s sanity. I know I mentioned the AI thing earlier; this is almost worse because it’s human-made. Human beings sat down, hashed this clunky crap out, listened to it back, thought to themselves “yup, good enough” and slapped it onto this tracklist. Are they not… ashamed??
Few highlights cross the finish line, but they are in fact there and I suppose they should be given some appreciation. ‘Nothing Better’ really does live up to its name, given what it’s surrounded by. A slacker anthem in many respects, it actually utilises its highest gear with the most roaring guitars the album receives. ‘Screwdriver’ is a writhing piece of garage-punk, punctuated by the jerkiest guitar and bass work of the entire album. It reminds me of the promise this band showed in the lead-up to this album. Their ability to measure their tracks with proper dynamics that now seems so distant. ‘Packshot’ is a similar moment of lucidity, sour as it is sharp. It makes use of the Slint-coded loud/soft effect to genuinely great effect. It has a ‘Food For Worms’ quality about it, a genuine oasis amidst a jumbled disappointment.
It didn’t have to be this way. The band could have just as easily pared things down like they have, without sacrificing all of what made them so exciting as a young band in the first place. They sound confused. Do they want to do some kind of Brit-pop revivalism? Do they want to brood like a Protomartyr? Do they want to rock like a Fontaines D.C.? Make fevered social observations like a Viagra Boys? This indecision seems to have led to a regression. Whatever they attempt, it ends up coming off more like a pale imitation of the thing they’re aspiring to. The lack of true identity here is what is most disappointing. It would be one thing to shift gears and cover a wider array of bases, whilst still maintaining some semblance of an idea of who and what you are. Not only does this not happen, but it almost feels crazy to even argue that that might’ve actually been their intention in the first place. Man alive!
Dan Will Review 