EP Review: Kid Klumsy – Singing Our Souls

I’ll put the end of this review at the beginning for a change: you won’t hear a finer slab of joyous and mischievous punk rock than this all year. Coalville’s Kid Klumsy exist in their own punk rock universe that makes perfect sense, even if it makes no sense at all. You can almost feel the joy bursting out of these six tracks and for a band whose thunderous melodies rely on a heavy-duty delivery, there’s a spectacular level of subtlety and attention to detail in Singing Our Souls that begs you to listen again and again. And you should. This EP sounds like everything you love about melodic but heavy punk rock and yet, paradoxically, is full of its own uniqueness and character.

The EP opens with the galloping Mr Right Man with its epic singalong chorus: “Mr Right Man, don’t believe your hype, man when your minions say they love you, well, I still think that you’re a cunt …” The power is undiminished for Slob, with its massive slabs of melody. I have no idea what the uproarious Dyslexic Munkiz is about, but I’ll happily jump about like one every time I play it. Love Is A Battery Field is an exuberant disembowelling of modern face-in-your-phone culture that recalls the very best of 1990s powerpop. Stalking is dealt with in She’s A Fuck and the EP closes with the Therapy?-ish Maisy’s Song.

Singing Our Souls is set for release at this year’s Rebellion Festival. You can catch them on the Pavilion Stage, Sunday 7.30, and be sure to pick up a copy of this storming EP from the STP stand if you’re there. Kid Klumsy have a pretty hectic schedule of gigs lined up, so you’re bound to be able to catch them somewhere. See you there. Singing Our Souls is on general release from 1 August on STP Records.