Release date: 25th September
Label: Marshall Records
From the likes of Fontaines D.C. and IDLES to Yard Act and Sports Team, post-punk has certainly seen a revival in recent years, with each band putting their own tasteful spin on the genre. Now with their second album Life Is Bliss, the boisterous Glaswegian rockers Gallus have come to leave their mark on the scene once again, hoping to prove they’re not just a one-trick pony.
The tone is perfectly set from the word go with the opening track ‘Au Contraire’ and the Kid Kapichi-esque ‘Better Than Nothing’. The former is a punky blast of a song that kicks things off with an anthemic urgency while the latter amps up the aggression as if it’s got a million points to prove all at once. From the pounding guitar work courtesy of Eamon Ewins and Gianluca Bernacchi to the straightforward but effective drumming from Paul Ewins, it’s clear Gallus have tightened things up since their debut when it comes to the songwriting, with every track here oozing a bravado that is somehow both carefree and fine-tuned.
The album reaches its peak with the joyfully fun ‘Sick Bastards’, a tongue-in-cheek track with the bounciest of riffs, comical wordplay and an assured confidence that permeates every second of its concise runtime. Not to mention the northern vocal sample that butts in to say the track’s title, which never fails to get a smirk out of those listening.
An approach Gallus have taken with this album, that wholeheartedly pays off in the long run, is using each song to play with differing styles and tones within pop-punk which, in turn, gives the album an extra sense of variety and stops it from sounding stagnant all the way through. For instance, ‘Stupid Dog’ is a fast, rough-around-the-edges track that is nothing like the slower and slightly mischievous ‘Something There’ that is more in line sonically with something Yard Act would produce.
These stylistic shifts also complement the many topics and themes vocalist Barry Dolan tackles across the album. This is most prevalent with the closing track ‘M8’, named after the Scottish motorway, which has a noticeably darker, more brooding feel to it instrumentally. The sound is only reinforced by the lyrics, which take an honest look at towns and places where one grows up, literally changing in the blink of an eye, becoming unrecognisable over time. Considering how diverse and raucous the rest of the album sounds, ‘M8’ is a considerably stark and scathing note to end things on that certainly works at leaving a lasting impression.
Life Is Bliss is an enjoyable showcase of what Gallus do best. It’s equal parts playful as it is relentless in its energy, all topped off with some perfectly cynical and potent lyricism. Does it reinvent the wheel? No, but that’s not what it’s trying to do in the first place. This is an album that comes in loud, does its job and swaggers away into the sunset proud of what it’s left behind.
Recommended track: Sick Bastards
Rating 8/10