Benefits (2) – Constant Noise

To all those who are annoyed by a little bit of surface noise on this album at first listen: a deep cleanse will fix that and pave the way for a wonderful listening experience of a perfectly mixed record that definitely (!) finds the groove if you get into it and don't get stuck on the noisepunk of its predecessor

Before this album dropped, i was informed by the band on X that they'd dropped drummers from the lineup, which was a first warning sign. hearing the first two singles i could feel this would be a drastic drop off from their debut album to which they seem to have replaced their more angry and erratic noise punk (see the original version of Divide, compared to the newest version on this album) with a more playing it safe sound that wouldn't be out of place on BBC 6 now. Kingsley's words and the sounds do remain fantastic, but the whole album just feels like a misstep to how great the first was, and getting the irrelevant Pete Doherty to mumble some barely bearable, incoherent guest verse on your record can't save it.

In all fairness though, i am going to see them live again soon, as I can say I was one of the first to see them when they took the project live after lockdown and then about 3-4 times after (Kingsley among his frightening stage man performance is a lovely and humble bloke, and as stated we would on occasion chat on X when i resided there) and they blew my mind on many many occasions, but with this album it could be the last time. Can imagine the coloured vinyl is a nightmare to find a groove also.