Local Resident Failure – This Here’s The Hard Part

Australian melodic skate-punk act Local Resident Failure returns with their latest full length, This Here’s The Hard Part.  Having already proven themselves as frontrunners in the contemporary skatepunk scene thanks to their sharp sense of sarcasm and heightened social conscious, a follow up need only sustain the momentum first put forth by A Breath Of Stale Air.  For the most part, the Newcastle quartet does just that.  This Here’s The Hard Part makes for a natural, albeit slightly less hard hitting, next step.

From a punk-rock standpoint, Local Resident Failure sounds tighter than ever.  Tempos range from fast to faster punctuated by a few pace-conscious breathers; the rumble of drums make for a breakneck battering a la No Use For A Name (see “Failing Health” and “Time Machine”) with the occasional technical expose hinting at flashes of Strung Out (as hidden in the relationship-manipulation piece “Brainwashed”).  Tuneful old school melodies and steadfast vocal harmonies bring This Here’s The Hard Part to life in much the same vein as countrymen Frenzal Rhomb.  

Lyrically, This Here’s The Hard Part marks a somewhat less confrontational or politically charged side of Local Resident Failure, largely opting for a more personal direction.  Opener “Around The World” rattles off the protagonist’s willing destinations of travel to maintain affection.  “I’d pack my bags tomorrow if you wanted to run away…” calls Dal, rambling off an expansive list of global venues: “let’s cross the river nile, slide down Everest… naked jelly wrestling in Times Square… I’d go anywhere just to be with you.”  It’s cute, inconsequential and smirk inducing. Other songs like “Rockstar” poke fun at pop culture images like dime-a-dozen “tight black pants and a leather jacket” sporting auditioner typical of global phenomenon “The Voice.”

“Re-Opener” revisits some of these more domestic themes through a more afflicted lens.  The heavy hand of consequence lands for one of the most dire relationship-based skatepunk songs since No Use For A Name’s “Justified Black Eye.”  Imagery of complete emotional disarray and drowning one’s pain in alcohol and drugs mirrors the scattered, suicidal thoughts of failing mental health.  “Only one more thing to ask, pull the trigger or live a lonely life,” states the band, leaving this grief struck scenario on an inconclusive cliffhanger.

Curiously, only “Long Night” and “Roll On 2” explicitly dip into the waters of social justice.  The former paints a picture of orphans of war locked in persistent cycles of mistrust, and the latter a reflection as told from sitting on death row.  “Into The Unknown” loosely explores what it would take to unite humanity and forget our petty differences through a scene of alien invasion, but its a stretch at best.  Considering A Breath Of Stale Air’s targeted denunciation of racism, This Here’s The Hard Part’s political topics lack the same dynamism.

All in all though, This Here’s The Hard Part finds Local Resident Failure carrying on confidently with fourteen songs of the melodic skate-punk they know and love.  If that’s your thing, then Local Resident Failure is still one of your best bets down under.