ALBUM REVIEW: The Warning – ‘Everything’s Falling’

Rock music has evolved well past the point where simply being a good guitar-bass-drums outfit is enough. If that’s you, you’re likely either banished to a nostalgia circle or stuck with an impenetrable ceiling overhead. It’s interesting, then, that The Warning—whose entire thing seems to be that they’re a good guitar-bass-drums outfit—have enjoyed the recent rise that they have.

Perhaps it’s a case of feeling like they do a bit more than just play to the cheap seats. Compared to, say, a new Foo Fighters album where a couple of good songs is called a win, The Warning do want to say and do more, more often. Everything’s Falling meets 2024’s Keep Me Fed in that way, looking to operate outside of the curve that meat-and-potatoes rock music is graded on, and producing even results across the board. Even without some tremendous leap between albums, The Warning are still more than pulling their weight.

That said, they’re still a ways off full titan status just yet. As far as novelty or a killer hook goes, their ‘three sisters from Mexico’ backstory is still all they’ve got. Hell, the only song here to break from the most standard rock band conventions is Waste Your Time, merely through some skittering programmed percussion at the start. The next-closest thing is an alt-metal production job on Ritual that fortifies it in a contemporary-sounding way, but even that’s a reach. On the bright side, The Warning plainly avoid the salacious tongue-baths that many a straight-up rock band gives to the ‘70s, thus erasing the potential to be more than a cell-thin facsimile. At least there’s drive here.

So much so, in fact, that when Everything’s Falling’s most recognisable musical stimulus is Royal Blood, that never presents an issue. Yes, even when bearing resemblance to rock’s most limited-by-design duo, The Warning can pull some decent work out of the bag. Naturally, it’s Alejandra Villarreal Vélez leading the charge here, as taut basslines played with stern intent are the propulsive force behind Why Do You Like It When I Cry? and Bruises. Happily, there’s also some variety to this, with Bite My Tongue and Bloodsport presenting with additional litheness and even some insidiousness.

That’s really a good illustration of what The Warning do best—take the stodge of ‘proper’ rock bands, add some necessary flavouring, and actually make it digestible. There’s no sense of being locked in place or paying the hollowest lip-service to ‘expanded horizons’; The Warning do what they do because…well, because it’s what they want to do. If screams are required, they’ll be peppered in on Why Do You Like It When I Cry?. The same goes for a heavier, angrier rumble or drum pattern, as seen on Ritual and Bite My Tongue respectively. When they really begin to veer off the neatest path—see Ego, sung entirely in Spanish, or Break and its grungier acoustic rattle—it becomes apparent how much more The Warning factor in than both their contemporaries and many predecessors.

Again, it’s not at all new, but if you’re looking for intent, Everything’s Falling is practically engorged with it. With Daniela Villarreal Vélez on vocals, it’s easy to see that in its most concentrated form. In the broad strokes of her performance, there’s a lot of reach and expressiveness that’s always good. The highest highs don’t even seem like a challenge, even resembling when the female pop-rockers of the 2000s would tilt darker and more emotive on the title track and Break. Lyrically, this is an album about overcoming self-doubt and personal failures, which is a perfect fit for the type of singer that Villarreal Vélez is. It also just works for straightforward rock music that’s reliant on power and tenacity, but in typical fashion for The Warning, their capability nudges that waterline further up. It’s what uncovers the darker details present on Perfect Daughter, or the mischievous giggles on Bloodsport that avoid disturbing its confrontational stance.

In aggregate, the steps that The Warning take outside of their format’s inflexible lines only make them look better. They’re avoiding the banality of middle-of-the-road music without seeming unfriendly to those to whom that would appeal, and that’s a diplomatic balance that works better than you’d think. Everything’s Falling doesn’t feel staid or watered-down, nor is it rewriting the code for what rock music can be. It’s a good middle ground, honestly, and it does make The Warning seem as though effort matters to them. That’s much more than can be said for a lot of others.

For fans of: Royal Blood, Foo Fighters, The Pretty Reckless

‘Everything’s Falling’ by The Warning is released on 28th August on Republic Records.

Words by Luke Nuttall