The longer you pay attention to music, you notice patterns. There seem to be an endless amount of throwback artists, and the music industry is always trying to promote and predict the next big wave. There is a shoegaze revival, a boom-bap revival, a bit of a nü-metal revival, and a post-punk revival all in various stages. All of these have caught my interest, but as an aging punk kid, the post-punk revival has been exciting to watch and trace influences back to bands I got into two decades ago. That is a long time to pay attention to trends and innovations. It is also a long time between albums, but mclusky have disbanded, formed other bands, and reunited to deliver their first album in 21 years on the word is here and so are we.
For the newcomers, mclusky are a post-hardcore/noise punk band from Cardiff in the late ’90s and early ’00s. They rose to critical acclaim for their second album Mclusky Do Dallas, which should be hailed as a classic, full of punchy songs and outlandish lyrics. Their follow-up, The Difference Between You And Me Is That I’m Not On Fire, carried on that energy while leaning into more whimsy and absurdism. The band split shortly after that, forming new projects such as Future Of The Left and Shooting At Unarmed Men. They reunited for some benefit shows with an altered line-up in 2014 and began to hint at making a new album and altered their name from Mclusky to Mclusky* to mclusky in honor of the past members and the line-up change. In 2023, they released an EP called the unpopular parts of a pig containing new material that would later appear on this year’s, the world is still here and so are we.
Their legacy has influenced bands like black midi, Idles, and Metz, and despite so many bands playing adjacent music, mclusky has remained true to their sound while occasionally taking inspiration from the young bucks, making this album a thrill to listen to. “unpopular parts of a pig” busts open the album with a rad guitar riff and vocalist Andy Falkous channels Mark E. Smith and by proxy Geordie Greep as he delivers lines like ‘delicate seeds come from delicate flowers/that was the horseshit she sold me for hours,’ alternating between heavier riffage and gang vocals and marching band beat verses. It goes hard and immediately recalls the band’s earlier energy. “autofocus on the prime directive” and “way of the exploding dickhead” could easily fit into mclusky‘s back catalog.
mclusky dabbles in different influences throughout the album, all filtered through their own tones and idiosyncrasies. “cops and coppers” plays out like noise punk reggae with heavy bass and staccato guitar strums, but Falkous also sounds like an unhinged anaimal, frothing snarls and sneers and upward lilts at the end of lines like some sort of new wave/Birthday Party-era Nick Cave. “people person” is supported by a deep, rattling bassline akin to The Jesus Lizard or Shellac while the vocals criticize short attention spans and contradictions in social respectability. ‘A lot of people like their heroes bald and fat,‘ he sings before, ‘I’m just a normal man, I’m not a people person.’ “the digger you deep” is a blues rock stomper, though it is hard to imagine Jack White singing the words, ‘performatively beating your meat.’
Surprisingly, the songs that slow things down seem to stand out more, adding dynamics in what could be a 30-minute sprint. “not all steeplejacks” has a Slint-esque guitar riff and softer touches on the drums. At times, the vocal melody reminds me of Harry Nilsson‘s “Coconut” and then it locks into a vampy repetition that reminds me of Parquet Courts‘ slower songs. Meanwhile, “checkov’s guns” gives us a slower build into their trademark intensity, as does album closer “hate the polis” that channels some of britpop’s sensibilities.
mclusky are as acerbic and powerful as they ever were, barely missing a beat in 21 years and showing these newer bands how its done, eager to fuck shit up and laugh the whole time. the world is here and so are we is sharp, witty, and fun the whole way through, and mclusky remain inimitable in their craft, picking up where they left off and giving a shit less if you like it or don’t.
