Bad Sports – Living With Secrets EP

Bad Sports have been quiet since the release of their 2014 full length, Bras, that’s not to say that the individual members of the band have been sitting on their laurels, they’ve all been active in other bands, including OBN IIIs, Video and Radioactivity, all of which have released albums since Bad Sports were last active. This EP was originally conceived as a trilogy of singles, but it seems that the decision was made that these tracks work better as one collection and Living With Secrets was born.

Opening track Don’t Get Your Hopes Up, a potential winner of the 2016 misleading song title award, kicks things off with a fine energetic riff  that the Buzzcocks would have proud of, the rest of Living With Secrets carries on in the same vein and it sounds like Bad Sports have been rummaging in a box of vintage punk singles, did I say this is a bad thing? because it isn’t. There are strong riffs aplenty, yes they are reminiscent of bands that came before them, this is a release that is wearing it’s influences on it’s sleeve, although given the influences are 70’s punk rock it’s more likely they’re wearing them as pin badges on the lapels of their leather jackets.

If I had to fault this I’d say that the vocals get a bit lost in the mix on this, aside from the vocals the mix captures the old school punk rock vibe of the album nicely, if you’re a fan of bands like The Saints, UK Subs, Buzzcocks, Dead Boys and The Adverts then you really should investigate this release as this is a slice of authentic old school punk rock that get’s better with every play.

Living With Secrets will be released on the 12th August and will be available from that date, as Dirtnap Records don’t do pre-orders, here