ALBUM REVIEW: Loose Articles – ‘Scream If You Wanna Go Faster’

Loose Articles are clearly looking to say things with this debut album, among them that it’s not only middle-English white boys with no fashion sense that can do the whole ‘post-punk disaffection’. The other things? Well, surely you could make an educated guess. Skim through the sardonic milieu and mundanities of post-punk, fix on the determination of current-wave femme-punk, and you arrive (round-about) at Scream If You Wanna Go Faster.

Though, if you read that title in any of Loose Articles’ Mancunian drawls, it’s not so much a call for mayhem as another layer of bulletproof irony from a band hunched over from the ennui of…everything. They’re phenomenal conveyors of it, from gritted teeth at dickhead bosses on Mr Manager, to I’ve Nearly Made It where the eye-rolls at others trying to tell you how to live your life are almost put directly to wax. And, of course, there’s the whole skewed perception of women in rock music that never gets any less tiresome to deal with, as illustrated on It’s Art and its sarcasm-soaked sequel Guitars, Cars, Knickers And Bras.

What’s noteworthy is how, despite the tangible anger that still exists within Loose Articles, it’s projected very differently to the norm. Whereas the perception of a lot of non-male punk acts is one of fire-spitting to bring oppressive forces down, Loose Articles seem notably more tired of it. That’s what post-punk is better equipped for; snide, sardonic jabs have a more natural home here. And while that’s by no means a new phenomenon—if anything, it can feel like the be-all-end-all blueprint for a healthy chunk of the genre in the 2020s—Scream If You Wanna Go Faster isn’t feeding into the genre fatigue. The female perspective is a big plus from the jump, if for no other reason than you’re not getting verbiage like “man-slags” from your identikit Fontaines D.C. or Sports Team bootlegs. More importantly, Loose Articles aren’t consigning themselves to the rigid frameworks that hurt the sound rather than reinforce it. Post-punk can still have recognisable characteristics without shamelessly photocopying those who found the most success doing it.

In the case of Loose Articles, they’re very locked into the field, but it’s certainly not draining to hear play out like plenty others. They’ve got a bit of their own thing going on within it, after all, a brittle, creaking sound palette filling in its gaps with budget synth whorls like on Are You A Welder. It’s skeletal and straight in a way that a lot of post-punk feels like it wants to be. The difference is how Loose Articles don’t seem to be shooting for mainstream ubiquity in the same way. Hooks aren’t that key a factor, mostly formed through repetitive phrases that sometimes is a little flimsy like on Unpaid Intern, but more often winds up like It’s Art where its cleverness at the centre carries it.

That said, Scream If You Wanna Go Faster can also be a difficult sell despite that. There’s a credible argument that it’s a bit thin to withstand consistent spins, mainly in the production style and how a song like I’d Rather Have A Beer is already brushing the upper limit as a quicker, rattling rockabilly song. There’s also Pinball John, which does better thanks to the prominence of its bending bass, but isn’t exactly imbued with the weightiness of others around it. It’s about a guy called John…who plays pinball. Yeah, not exactly an incisive story, that one, as Loose Articles appear to fixate on the post-punk oeuvre of expanding mundane details around them into full stories in a rather limp way.

On an album designed to be anything but, you can see how it’s an outlier, as well as the strength of Loose Articles when they do get it right. For the most part, Scream If You Wanna Go Faster engages in ways that are understated yet noteworthy, and do the most to establish such a solid identity for Loose Articles. When all these composite parts come together, there’s not really anyone doing it exactly like this, which is only a good thing when the main ideas already feel strengthened to this degree. Add in a sense for timing and wit that’s imperative for any band worth their salt in these circles to have, and you won’t go too far wrong with this. Maybe post-punk isn’t a completely dead horse just yet; you just have to manage to do something with it.

For fans of: Panic Shack, Lambrini Girls, SPRINTS

‘Scream If You Wanna Go Faster’ by Loose Articles is released on 26th July on Alcopop! Records.

Words by Luke Nuttall