Sludgeworth – Second Time Around

Sludgeworth is not a stop animation children’s show with whimsical characters created in a garage in Weston Super Mare. Sludgeworth is a punk band of peerless provenance from Chicago, and this is their first new album in thirty-five freaking years. That’s not to say that they’ve been sitting on their hands for the past three and a half decades. In fact, we’ve often wondered if Dan ‘Vapid’ Schafer is the hardest-working artiste in punk history (even Wikipedia gives up after citing Screeching Weasel, The Riverdales, The Methadones as his other outfits by saying he has played in/with ‘various other punk rock/pop punk bands’). Sludgeworth reunites drummer Brian ‘Vermin’ McQuaid and Schafer with guitarists Dave McLean and Adam White from Ethyline alongside new bassist Simon Lamb (Violets and The Methadones).

Second Time Around is not a nostalgic nod to or cash-in on a glorious past. It’s fresh and modern, and full of all the good stuff you would have a right to expect from a band with this pedigree. The album opens with the magnificent Can’t Change Yesterday which is pure pop punk at its emotionally wrought finest. Hold Steadybuilds and builds into another anthem rocker that will get in your head and won’t be dislodged. When you think maximum singalongability has been attained, Together Not Together bursts into your head. But it’s not all frantic pop punk riffing. The massive Simulation skips between mid-tempo musicality to massive arms in the air singalong choruses. Tipping Point finds us back in urgent guitar assault mode while Kill Switch feeds in a sense of menace and drama. Our Better Angels, Old Friend and I Don’t have Forever return to more tuneful, poppy form, the latter channelling a bit of Dave Grohl energy. Smile Upon Today and Trouble Brewing are archetypal tuneful pop punk. Rockets To Heaven‘s lilting, soft acoustic guitar and piano intro channels Green Day at their introspective best.

Masterful stuff from the Chicago OGs and an album as fresh and relevant as any you’ll hear this year. Quality assured. Let’s hope the third album doesn’t take as long. We love it.

Second Time Around is out now via Red Scare Industries.