Album Review: Monkish – Quorn Is Murder

Since playing their first gig in 2006 London, UK’s Monkish have steadily built up a following with their own brand of humour, and their wild and energetic live performances that have seen the band play all over the UK, as well as in the USA, Ireland, Italy, Germany, Belgium, Holland, and Austria. Monkish‘s debut album, You Can’t Polish A Turd, was released in 2011 and their new album, Quorn is Murder, is now available on CD and digital formats via Bandcamp.

In case it wasn’t obvious from the album title Monkish are a band that don’t take themselves too seriously, Meat At The Top kicks things off with a non vegetarian opener, the album continues to mine their own brand of humour from their own misfortunes on the road and subjects such as agoraphobia, diabetes and obsessive compulsive disorder. The humour on Quorn Is Murder fell wide of the mark for me, and there are several times when it became uncomfortable listening as some of the humour belongs firmly in the decade that Monkish take their musical influences from. In particular the reference to Jews in Chugger Off was the point where for me Monkish crossed the line and swapped humour for trading in dated and unwelcome stereotypes.

Monkish take their cues from old school UK punk rock bands such as Radio Stars, The Vibrators, The Macc Lads and The Lurkers, whether this album will be to your taste will depend on whether their sense of humour is to your taste. I found the album’s themes became repetitious, and some of the references in the songs hit a distinctly sour note with me. If old school punk rock with questionable humour is to your taste then you might enjoy Monkish, but for me they lack the rough charm of other punk bands who focus on humour, and for me crude stereotypes have no place in the modern punk scene.

Quorn Is Murder can be streamed and purchased via Bandcamp here

Monkish‘s Facebook page can be found here