Brighton punk ‘n’ rollers Whitemare are back with their latest slab of party punk goodness in the form of ‘Screamer’. The 7 track mini-album sees the band in similar territory but they’ve upped the fun factor to nigh on ridiculous levels and the hooks are flying more dangerously than a butcher’s pantry. Bands like Whitemare (who clearly favour enjoyable melodies and humour) get a bad rep with the press and this is a damn shame because bands shouldn’t be frowned upon for being fun. Let me spell this out if you’re new to the band; get ready for Kvelertak meets Turbonegro by way of Every Time I Die. Doesn’t that sound awesome?
Awesome it definitely is. Whitemare were never going to reinvent the wheel with their particular brand of punk but they’ve definitely improved. As mentioned before, Screamer is loaded with massive hooks and guitarist Al Kilcullen delivers more memorable riffs than should be physically possible in 12 and a half minutes. A nice touch is the more frequent use of the blues scales to give the songs a real 1950s rock ‘n’ roll edge. ‘Scene-agers’ even steps it up with some stupidly enjoyable Little Richard-esque piano mashing that turns the song into something that should soundtrack the booziest of all parties.
A real highlight comes with the self-referential ‘Snider’ (a nod to bands debut album) which blazes a streak through the middle of the EP and punches the listener repeatedly with some of the fastest riffing and brilliantly daft lyrics about having someone smoke all your cigarettes forcing you to go and buy some more.
Speaking of the lyrics, Matt Johnson has really upped his game when it comes to humour and it adds another brilliantly entertaining element to Whitemare’s sound. Whilst also having a little dig at LCD Soundsystem, ‘Metallicaz Playing At My House’ features the immortal line, “Metallica is playing at my house and I just hope they don’t play St. Anger”. What is not to love about this mini-album?
Whitemare’s ‘Screamer’ a boisterous, silly and down-right fun slab of punk ‘n’ roll and furthers the band as one of the UK’s most enjoyable party bands. There might not be an awful lot to the band’s party punk shtick but when it’s such rollicking good fun as this I can’t bring myself to mark that up as a negative. Take one thing away from this review; Whitemare’s ‘Screamer’ will make you bang your head, grin like an idiot and want to get absolutely rat-arsed with your friends. That’s a success in my book.
8/10
Whitemare’s ‘Screamer’ is available to pre-order from Riot House Records digitally now and releases on the 19th of November.
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