Cheers, maybe the album’s most instantly likeable observe, is acerbic middle-aged rage, formless fury changed by brilliantly directed sarcasm. It’s backed up by Ace’s emotive guitar motif that exhibits its energy in brief doses, and a killer hook. Whereas This Is Not Your Life has a sing-aloud hook of the sort Skunk have at all times specialised in, this time it rides on the shoulders of digital noise, banks of keyboards that may displease rock purists however will fascinate these extra open of thoughts.
The beautiful Disgrace is one other open-sore ballad within the custom of Hedonism and Brazen (Weep), however the sound, once more, is completely different – shinier, extra expansive, much less guitar reliant, and albeit nearly as good as something they’ve executed. So it continues, the band mixing ska with rock, electronics and synths with throbbing bass and disarming melodies. It’s a brand new Skunk Anansie, who they’re now within the wake of private problem, but in addition suggestions a hat to their extraordinary previous.
They’ve by no means launched an album that embraces creativity this brazenly. My Best Second, for instance, is filled with ear-catchingly extracurricular sounds – the type of factor artists within the NIN-to-Starset bracket specialize in, however with out sounding like both. Life’s reality is perhaps painful generally, however it’s hardly ever sounded higher.
Verdict: 4/5
For followers of: Incubus, Rubbish, The Distillers
The Painful Fact is launched on Might 23 by way of FLG Data
