Loose Articles – Scream If You Wanna Go Faster

It seems hard to believe that this is Loose Articles debut album, they have been around since, well not really that sure, but a good few years at least. I have to admit, and this is really a bad admit, they’ve played my local music festival Stockton Calling twice in 2022 & 2023 and on both occasions I missed them, fuck sake, really! I know. But that doesn’t mean they’ve passed me by, far from it, this is a band I have spend many times listening to and having a beer, isn’t that what you do when listening to Loose Articles? Well I do anyway.

Having now mastered the playing live thing, in a massive way, playing more gigs and festivals than you could ever dream (or could be bothered) of counting, and possibly the biggest was supporting Foo Fighters at their Manchester dates (yep I was at the London date, missed again, a theme is emerging). With an EP under the belt, now they have Scream If You Wanna Go Faster is unleashed on the world, it’s an album that grows and grows on you, it’s what the band does and does well, its full of their usual rhythmic repetition thats off kilter at times, punk at times, but most definitely attitude ridden.

Track one comes in as ‘Mr Manager’ which was released as a taster back in April, it sets out a stall for what’s to come, the use of daily drudge and life at it’s normal best are all mixed in with politics and feminine strength. This is an album that just falls into place in your mind, its easy listening but challenging with thought provoking moments, at times it gives you a hug, but only if you like beer and football.

The use of rhythm is one of the most basic things in music, but its how you use it thats matters more than anything, take ‘Are You A Welder’ or ‘Want’, both use the it in slightly different ways, the former has a much stronger dance beat and knits that together with some untamed angst, the latter has a metronome for its steady undercurrent, yet off kilter moments and quirky intersections of a lyric that speaks of how modern life wants us all to be that stereotypical single cell organism.

As you meander through an album full of this magical individuality, you also can’t help thinking back to the time the Slits hit the scene, a beast all of its own, never fitting in to any pigeonhole. ‘I’ve Nearly Made It’ was a song that hit that note more than most, it just felt like a group playing what the hell they wanted (technically fucking on it, by the way) with words that speaks volumes of what being artistic actually means, how the sacrifices that have to be made don’t always pan out, but who gives a fuck really. “Did you ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated” comes to mind often within this mad piece of actual art, when the music has been played, the words have been said/sung, but most of all fun has been had doing it, and then its all taken away, ‘Its Art’ is the moment when the quote fits perfectly, when being in a band and doing all those things gets judged, when twats like me listen and try and pick over the bones, but worst of all when those pricks in the “art/music” world decide its now theirs to own and either make or break, thats being Cheated!. You feel this is a band thats got it together, forget the Spice Girls corporate bollocks, this is real empowerment.

Forget what you’ve heard before, forget Rock n Roll or Punk Fucking Rock, get your dance shoes on, grab a beer and just enjoy this album for every mad scientist second of it.   

Out via Alcopop! Records on July 26th  

Seek out the band at their WEBSITE and FACEBOOK