Album Review: The Kut - "Grit"

 

The Kut are one of those bands who suddenly seem to have made a pretty huge leap up commercially in the last year or two. Having come up through the London rock bar scene alongside the likes of Healthy Junkies and Yur Mum about half a decade or so ago, they put out a solid debut album in the form of 2018's Valley Of Thorns but with the group moving up in the world, the pressure's on a bit here for the music to reflect their added commercial presence (tube ads an' all).

Opening track Animo is a solid effort with its chugging riff and Mahi's vocals reminding me a bit of Syteria for some reason which isn't a bad thing. The vocoder on the chorus is a bit hard on the ears though! Second track Burn Your Bridges is a bit better with its laid back slacker menace coming across like L7 in one of their poppier moments before building up to a screamalong chorus.

Grit keeps up an impressively varied output throughout from the driving riff of Not Here For Love to the more loose-limbed shuffle of Brother (even if you may have to try and get Bon Jovi's Keep The Faith out of your brain while listening to it!). They've definitely got an ear for a good pop hook as well as Runaways and And 1 More both demonstrate and even the shameless power balladry of Satellite works better than it really has any right to. The only slight red light is that a couple of tracks drift towards being a bit generic later on in the album but even on these they manage to pack a suitably decent hook on them to prevent this becoming too much of an issue.

Honestly, I wasn't sure what to expect from this album - there's been a lot of cases down the years of a band getting extra commercial backing and their output suffering but the Kut have definitely wrong-footed those who might have expected them to go down this route. Grit does what every good second album should do by building on the best bits from Valley Of Thorns and adding a few new twists and turns to the formula to come up with something genuinely good. Consider me impressed.

NITE SONGS RATING: 🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌑🌑 (8/10)

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