Album Review: Rum Lad - "Punk AF"

 

Rum Lad is a one man indie-punk operation based out of Nottingham and Punk AF is his second album, less than 12 months after the first. I wasn't quite sure whether to expect the heart on sleeve acoustics of Frank Turner or Billy Bragg or the unfettered chaos of Dead Sheeran or the Sleaford Mods with this release.

The answer is - a bit of the former and a lot of the latter. Lazy Sod kicks things off with a frenetic diatribe against braindead tabloid readers who are quick to cast aspersions on anyone and everyone. Mouthoid is a similar bass, drums and keyboards rush to what Idles made their name doing so well with its no-punches-pulled attacks on political leaders while Wake Up England is a ferocious Dead Sheeran style howl against political apathy and Suffer is one part early Manics and one part Stooges style nihilism.

Punk AF doesn't let up throughout from the red raw breakup anger of The Difference Between and the smalltown desperation of Retford to the howling estate brutality of Punched In The Throat and the sheer defiance of closer Clip Round The Ear. As you’d expect with this album is basically a one man operation, the musicality on here is very much of the "get in, say what you've got to say and get out again" school but that suits the viciously straightforward fury of this material down to the ground.

Similar to Dead Sheeran or the Idles, Rum Lad has done well here to create an album which sums up the sheer desperation of Britain in 2021 down to the ground. It doesn't offer any solutions, rather it holds a mirror up to your face and asks whether you're just going to sit there and suffer or actually get up and do something about it. Some advice we could probably all do with heeding to be honest.

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NITE SONGS RATING: 🌖🌖🌖🌖🌖🌖🌖🌖🌑🌑 (8/10)

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