Isn’t it a pity, isn’t it a Shame. Yes it is a Shame. A Shame LP. And it is very much a Shame LP. The apple does not fall far from the tried and tested tree.
Heavy thick trunk, flailing branches, floppy leafy canopy. Not sure where i am going with this metaphor but basically what i am saying you can recognise a Shame record from a thousand paces. To say Charlie Steen’s voice isn’t distinctive would be like stating Liam Gallagher sounds the same as Taylor Swift. However he has learned a few new tricks, because this is still a young dog. Most notably on opener and titular lead single ‘Cutthroat’ where in the chorus Steen uses an echoed baritone, a departure from the verses and his regular sprechtgesang. “They like the boys and the girls/They like having fun with everyone/And why not“.
It’s been longer than i care to imagine since these South London upstarts released their debut album, Songs of Praise all fresh faced and angelic, but loud, angry, punk and angular riffs and refrains. They were also poetic, Charlie’s lyrics poignant and beautiful in places, no better than on ‘Angie’ with it’s devastating story of a friend taking their own life “deep fry your feelings so they can’t escape/disappear into nothing and find your happy place/I’ll cut you down/I’ll hold your face/their we will stay/in your happy place”. On the flip side he writes in detail about a girl who has a sugar daddy, who hates it but “she feels so good in Louis Vuitton” on ‘Gold Hole’.
Time has passed through the early 2020’s vacuum and apparently 7 years have whistled by in a heartbeat. Here we stand in the precipice of oblivion and the girls and the boys and everyone in-between and beyond just want to have fun. There’s a certain amount of unhinged imagery, the hedonistic party at the end of the world. Gold hot pants, dog collars and chains, cigars, Mad Max video treatments. “Big, Beautiful naked women fall out the sky/mother fucker i was born to die”.
And why not?!?
Feels like the gloves are off.
Second track, ‘Cowards Around’ is what you’d expect, a diatribe at the lying, cheating rich arseholes. You can’t trust any of them, even the ones you think you can. The flames are licking higher.
There’s a furious nature to the guitars. Hammering away at them or firing off daggers of licks that slash at the fabric of audio sensibility. They’ve got a purpose, a manifesto and they aren’t hanging around.
‘Quiet Life’ sounds like they’re trying to convince themselves that this Rock’n’Roll lifestyle is getting too much for them. But after’ Cutthroat’ they aren’t fooling anyone. “I’m a coward, don’t you know this”. There’s a subtext about escape. If that’s from themselves or someone else isn’t clear. A song for any occasion.
Recorded by John Congleton, the LP has a driven direction and structure that other Shame LPs may have been lacking. That’s not to say there isn’t a bit of the regular looseness but the chaff has been removed.
‘Plaster’ has a new flavour for them. A buzz saw drone in the chorus, it sounds like a synth but has a Weezer guitar sound. An U.S Alt Rock from decades before. ‘Spartak’ is wistful. Regretful. Whilst also digging out the pricks. ‘Lampiäo’ is both a very Shame song but also a world away from their normal subject matter. A Brazilian bandit leader from the beginning of the 20th century. A big bad mother fucker. There’s something of Duran Duran to the percussion and guitar strains.
‘After Party’ is another departure. Part Talking Heads, part mid period Kings of Leon when they were trying to be interesting alongside the stadium rock stuff. Here it sounds like New York City at 3am, in CBGBs, in an alternate universe.
‘Screwdriver’ has a third album Strokes feel. That 80’s cinematic atmosphere, until it explodes in the chorus, ironically with multi layered guitars. “… with a life on tick”.
Nothing on here sticks around for too long. It’s in a hurry. They say they never expect to make the next record but they seem eager to move on to the next thing. But then ‘Packshot’ slows it all down, with church organ crescendoing with angular guitars that somehow work.
‘Axis of Evil’ , well take your pick. There’s an industrial, Nine Inch Nails influence in the verses, but it has a Human League or early Depeche Mode chorus. There are times where they really push the boat out and they end up not sounding like Shame. Whilst still sounding like Shame. They’re much cleaverer than they are given credit for.
So what i said at the beginning isn’t strictly speaking true. You can tell a Shame record from a hundred paces but that apple has rolled down the orchard, out the gate, down the road, through several 80’s nightclubs, into a record shop and the listening booths, through a pub and out into the micro brewery to be squashed and turned into cider. Industrial strength cider. It’ll make that cutthroat sting but it’s oh so sweet.
