Released:
Rating:
Just because White Lung’s fourth album sees them smooth off a few edges, doesn’t mean it’s a calm affair.
Label: Domino
Released: May 6th 2016
Rating: ★★★★★
As part of the press material that came with White Lung’s fourth album, there’s an interview between the band and St. Vincent’s Annie Clark. In it, Mish Barber-Way explains a “really stupid attitude punks have where it’s somehow uncool to become a better songwriter.” One listen to ‘Paradise’, and you can tell exactly why that’s on her mind.
Not exactly tamed, White Lung have more channeled their pissed-off spirit into ten tracks of incendiary but deliberate fury – and, if possible, they’re an even better band for it. Sure, it may be hard to accept that the squealing, writhing spirit of ‘Kiss Me When I Bleed’ is a band working within the lines, but that’s why ‘Paradise’ works so well. Every move is both deliberate and seemingly unrestrained in the same breath.
‘Hungry’ is a genuinely brilliant salvo. A relatively calm affair, it still feels razor sharp. ‘Narcoleptic’ doesn’t do what it says on the tin, while ‘Demented’ definitely does. In a world where most rock music can feel polished or restrained to the point of conformity, White Lung’s ‘Paradise’ isn’t about deck chairs and cocktails by the pool. It’s about letting rip in the most gloriously effective way possible. There’s no holding them back now. [sc name=”stopper” ]
