Earnestness is an interesting fix to crave for when in a digital age struck by a meticulous urge to strive for perfection. In it, there is a constant erasure of flawed stories and spirited adventures unbeknownst to risks that, frankly, does a huge disservice to music and how to both consume and produce it. Sure, there are genres that precisely aim to combat this, but there is a fine line between heart and nonchalance when doing so that bands tend to get caught in between. Sure enough, Crewe noise rock act UNIVERSITY fall under the former, where – with a daring smile – brave through polished soundscapes with unfiltered whim and energy in the form of McCartney, It’ll Be OK.
Let’s cut right to the chase here – this record is an absolute blast from start to finish. When a band has both chemistry and the confidence to hold absolutely nothing back, then that’s a sure recipe for greatness, and UNIVERSITY deliver just that on so many aspects with McCartney, It’ll Be OK. Punk, noise rock, and mathy post-hardcore meld in ecstatic frenzy to put together a set of tracks that just barely leans towards the absurd, but nonetheless sticks the landing effortlessly.
And this is evident as immediate as the very first song – “Massive Twenty One Pilots Tattoo”, titled after a friendly bout of coming up with the worst idea for a tattoo, sways between semblances of contemplation and a feverish onslaught of shrilling guitars, volatile drumming, absolutely unhinged vocals, and a rich bass tone to just barely contain the chaos at hand. The lines ‘And I will never die/and I will never fucking cry‘ and ‘the cracks will never show up on my TV again‘ are repeatedly expressed in various degrees of clamors, with the way they’re delivered prompting a deliberate showcasing of emotions beneath all the apparent clutter. This is something that refreshingly exposes the band’s overall musical framework to the record – a proposal for emotional sonic exploration:
‘There was a conscious choice in the writing to make it more emotionally varied. It encapsulates a wider array of emotions. We’ve got a more lighthearted way of looking at our band now… Because we’re influenced by a lot of emo and music that’s extreme, we realised things can only be so miserable unless you have something to contrast it with…’
As a result, there is surprisingly much color to McCartney, It’ll Be OK: “Gorilla Panic” and “Diamond Song” make excellent cases for soaring noisegaze while never losing the album’s characteristic ferocity. As mentioned above, emo influences can also be found throughout this release – especially evident in a song like “GTA Online”, whose emotionality comes off as second nature for the band with its impassioned half-time pacing and cryptic but meandering lyrical ponderations. Make no mistake, though, because with all the genre blending, it’s nonetheless clear that these are songs by UNIVERSITY, and that’s something that makes the record much more attractive and compelling. Laced in all of these tracks are sonic trademarks you catch up on while listening to them, much of it coming from the sardonic jovialness to the band’s overall performance, that makes for a much more memorable finished product.
“Hustler’s Metamorphosis”, for instance, channels doom and sludge while bringing aggressive angularity to the forefront that’s not unlike The Fall of Troy at their heaviest, and yet there’s a frantically droning brightness to UNIVERSITY‘s musicality that is easily identifiable for me at this point of the record. In similar fashion, the 10-minute multi-faceted cut “History of Iron Maiden Pt. 1” (no relation to the NWOBHM legends nor Eddie, the band’s balaclava-wearing member whose main role is to play video games during live performances) coalesce all these stylings found throughout the album to form a hyperactive whirlwind of sound that’s sharp, blazing, impassioned, and unequivocally UNIVERSITY.
For all the overwhelming noise around the world both online and offline, UNIVERSITY manage to filter all of it into a record that screams from the top of its lungs not to make a rebellious statement, but to merely do so because it just fucking feels good, and that already speak volumes to the UK outfit’s vision and obvious potential. McCartney, It’ll Be OK is electrifying in the way that brings life to disorder, facing it with a spirit to challenge it with both poise and mischief through uniquely-assembled noise rock that’s confident, rowdy, and infectiously animated. Sure enough, UNIVERSITY put out a one-in-a-million debut full-length, one that’s unmistakably a high point for the many other stellar rock albums released this year so far.
