unpeople – we are unpeople
Release Date: 9th October 2026
If you’ve been to a gig, festival or just generally left your house in the past 18 months, chances are you’ve come across unpeople. They’ve spent the last couple of years gradually seeping into the psyche of every alt-music fan by supporting just about everyone and being on every festival lineup around Europe.
Now, a good chunk of this album has already seen the light of day. Tracks like ‘waste’ and ‘smother’ were the opening tracks to the band’s 2024 EP and ‘the garden’ released as a single in October 2024. If you’ve ever had any interest in the band, you’ve probably heard and already love those. So what’s new? Well, ‘clouds’ and ‘friends’ led the charge into this debut release and then serve as the introduction to we are unpeople. ‘clouds’, opening with the delightful harmonies that are littered throughout the album, is the archetypal unpeople song. From calm, catchy singalongs to headbanging to being forced to mosh and then dragged all the back through, this is unpeople. Highlight of the opener being the “na na na na nanana” in the middle that on first listen catches you off guard and will then make you sound like a right weirdo when you compulsively sing it out loud while walking with headphones on. As you head into ‘friends’, adrenaline already pumping, frontman Jake Crawford’s screams are unleashed, breakdowns are introduced and a thunderous riff ensures no one will be safe in the pit, but within seconds we’re somehow clapping and dancing along instead of launching ourselves at our new pit mates.
This is the unpeople experience. From catchy, pop-laden singalongs via riffs that, in true cliched fashion, will melt faces to bouncing breakdowns, all the while not having any clue what is coming next. The run of ‘bottle it’ into ‘blueprints’ followed by ‘haunted’ sums this up beautifully too. The frenetic intro to ‘bottle it’ that gives way to gurn-inducing bass, the shriek of Crawford and the pure energy before dropping into a tranquil pre-chorus and chorus. The serene opening to ‘blueprints’ that provides the perfect midpoint respite as it transitions from calmness to full blown 80s rock. The return of the “naaa na na naaaaa” for ‘haunted’ that get interspersed around the chaos that this track is. unpeople already have plenty of songs that go off live, ‘haunted’ is going to take it up several notches though. From the opening seconds its clear that this is the song from the album. The one that you’ll be singing over and over again, sometimes days after having last listened to it. Get ready to dance while cleaning, to get that extra bounce in your step while out walking and to absolutely lose your shit when they play it at a show.
Happily, there are no ‘weak’ parts of this album. Of the remaining ‘new’ tracks, ‘look up’ dials up the broodiness and features Crawford’s biggest scream so far’, ‘kangareuben’ reverts to punky vibes with some lovely raw vocals to kick off before a wonderfully singable chorus and just after a minute there’s some nice back and forth that shows the personality that unpeople pour into their tracks. Closing track, ‘as you were’, despite having a bit of a ‘Down With The Sickness’ vibe to begin with, evolves into a buoyant almost seasonal track.
The most interesting part of we are unpeople is that you can go into any song, pick out any line and it will have, or be part of, a message that will talk to your soul (or at the very least that voice in your head that tells you that you suck and everyone hates you). Bowling For Soup may be the band you can wave to, but unpeople are the band that can give you just that bit of perspective on life.
we are unpeople has been a long time coming for some of us but the band have done this perfectly. They’ve built up their core audience, released earworm after earworm and then decided now was the right time to treat us all. It has been an exciting couple of years trying to work out if the band could take the magic of their singles, bottle it and turn it into a full length album. Well, we’ve got all the answers now and we’re sure as hell buying it.
Rating: 10/10
Recommended Tracks: haunted, kangareuben, the garden