Violent Soho – Everything Is A-OK

Australian indie grunge powerhouse Violent Soho has quietly been gaining recognition stateside after completely dominating their home downunder.  I first became acquainted with the Brisbane/Queensland quartet when they leveraged SideOneDummy’s American distribution  for the release of Hungry Ghost, and the rest is history.  While the band hasn’t caught on in the same way as back in their home country (Waco garnered a number one spot on the Australian music charts), they’ve definitely carved out a comfortable niche somewhere in the global indie and rock scenes.

For the band’s fifth full length, Everything Is A-OK, Violent Soho once again lives up to their growing reputation.  “Sleep Year” opens the disc on a simple enough premise: take some wiry Smashing Pumpkins style vocals and embed them amidst a backdrop of crunchy, grungy riffs and squealing distortion.  The basic execution feels like a throwback to the 90’s with a modern edge.  In other words, the choruses drag –  but not too much – and the hooks are ragged, but still sharp.  

Opening with “Sleep Year,” the band confronts listeners with a defining forty seconds of distortion heavy riffs and rumbling bass.  It’s swampy and densely thick, but doesn’t take long for Luke Boerdam to make his distinct presence known.  Like the grunge movement before him, his voice flies high, sliding between pitchy territory and spastic outbursts (“Easy”), grinding uncomfortably some moments, and soaring cleanly during others.  Mid-tempo toe-tappers like “Vacation Forever” and “Lying on the Floor” make up the backbone of Everything Is A-OK.  Or perhaps they’re better described as light hearted head bangers – most tracks are quite fluid, so it really depends on your mood as a listener.  Slower, gungier tunes like the title track and “Slow Down Sonic” provide effective album pacing. A few songs fall into the realm of “catchy,” most notably “Canada” and “Pitty Jar,” which serve as effective upswings as the track listing pays out.

Overall, Everything Is A-OK upholds Violent Soho’s reputation as modern grunge revivalists.  Given that the band finds themselves five albums into their career, the disc does feel relatively safe within their context, but for a band that never set out to reinvent the wheel, Everything Is A-OK demonstrates a strong continuity and commitment to their craft.