Our Souls – DIY Misery EP

Having not heard much at all from Our Souls personally, I thought I’d take a read of one of our other writer’s reviews from a previous EP release back in 2019 to get some context, and safe to say this is a band that have taken a leap forwards or backwards depending on your tastes, mine is in the forward camp. As my fellow writer said back then they were “a gruff Punk quintet”, now you might say its a little less on the gruff side, more of a growling melodic wolf that’ll bite you if your not looking. To my detriment like I pointed out earlier, I hadn’t listened much to this band, not through choice, more of a ships in the night scenario, so getting this latest EP DIY Misery to check out, was in this case a stroke of good fortune. You know when a band passes you by for far too long and then, like now, it just happens, and it becomes clear as mud that missing out can turn out to be so sweet once your acquaintance is made. It’s like someone saving the last Rolo and having it given to you as a gift.

So anyway, growling melodic wolf stuff incoming, ‘Them Old Haunts (The Earworm)’ is it? An earworm that is, not sure on this, but what it does, is it brings you a sense of early Punk, done in a way that takes you back and allows nothing but the love of music to flow. This is followed up by something just as good, ‘Last Life’ that is an uncomplicated fucking brilliance of a song, yet it’s lyrics have some kind of story about being under the control of the likes of a narcissist or something, bloody clever stuff for sure. Track three, ‘Glaswegian Blood, Yorkshire Heart, Leicester Lad (Chin Up, Mate)’, as well as having a title so long I had to rest my fingers somewhere on the M6, has all the sign of being the angriest mother fucker on the EP, “A grenade rammed into my throat, pin pulled and ready to explode”, this lyric says so much, its pain, it’s never not hurting, this song has layers that are as dark as this EP ever gets.

This whole EP has something more to say than at first listen, every song lyrically has more than the final song, ‘I’ve Only Got A Provisional Poetic License’, alludes to. This EP is street poetry at its finest, words are like bullets, and fired at you with this kind of musical accompaniment they’ll frankly fizz past your ears and make you sit up and listen. I think my fellow writer likened Our Souls to Kid Klumsy covering GBH, I’d say they’re all grown up now, and the GBH might still be somewhere in there, but now its hand in hand with Screeching Weasel, but what also stood out for myself was the uncanny likeness to one of my favourite and lesser known North East bands, The Halfcuts (sadly no longer, search streaming platforms for Serotonin by them). Urgent, introspective, and by god it can be all consuming at times, but at the same time, it’s easy to listen to, its first wave Punk with no frills but plenty of angst.

DIY Misery is out Now via Socks On Records and Indolent Records and you can find Our Souls on Facebook & Bandcamp.