Album Review: Stiff Richards - "State Of Mind"

 

Well, with a band name like that we'd have been fools not to listen to this one. Hailing from Melbourne, Stiff Richards are another of those ultra-raw garage punk bands that seem to have emerged from the Antipodes in recent years to go alongside Amyl & The Sniffers and the Chats. Certainly hearing the rabid Point Of You exploding from the speakers sounding like some almighty three way collision between the Dead Boys, the Parkinsons and the Saints at their rawest, the bar is set pretty high for this one.

The only slight problem with State of Mind is that it doesn't really have a lot of variety to it as the title track, Talk and Going Numb don't really deviate from the template set out on the opener although they've got enough anger and snotty energy to just about carry 'em through. But it's only with the sinister rumbling Mr Situation that it feels like Stiff Richards are really trying to shift things around a bit. Worth it when it happens though. Got It To Go is another mid-tempo number although the screamed vocals over the top certainly ensure that you're in no danger of losing interest before the lightning speed one-two-three of Glass, the social distancing tirade Kids Out On The Grass and Fill In The Blanks (which has some good East Bay Ray style guitar on it) sign this one off in a suitably Stiv-esque tornado of vitriol.

Stiff Richards aren't quite the finished article yet but State Of Mind shows that, barring the issue of a few of the tracks maybe straying a bit too close to each other in their sound, they're definitely getting there. Give them another album to work out what's working and what isn't and there's the germ of a very exciting punk band coming through here. A work in progress then but definitely a suitably feral one.

NITE SONGS RATING: 🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌑🌑🌑 (7/10)