Shame (19) – Drunk Tank Pink

I have hope again in 2021 for many reasons, but mostly because of rock music. After the drought of good rock records that was 2020, we've gotten two great rock albums within the first few weeks of 2021 already. Last week there was Viagra Boys' interesting new second album, and now shame are offering their sophomore LP, teased by four very promising singles.

'Alphabet', 'Nigel Hitter', 'Water in the Well' and 'Snow Day' were a collection of boisterous, percussive and versatile songs. 'Snow Day' for example, a track which dramatically introduces multiple structural changes within its five minute run time. It's a stylistic choice we see again on some of the new songs, like 'Born in Luton', which deploys a slackening change in beat for its hook, banishing the erratic guitar and percussion of the verses. 'March Day' then takes it back to the upbeat fun of 'Nigel Hitter' or 'Water in the Well, a couple of songs that offer an unusual go-getting use of percussion for this type of post punk infused rock. It works out very well though and lends the tracks a welcome zappiness.

The second half of the album starts with 'Human, for a Minute', a song that takes it down for a more dark and thoughtful soft rock sound, with Charlie Steen entrusting to a significant other that before their arrival he "never felt human", but that he's still just "half the man" that he should be. 'Great Dog' and '6/1' are quick ragers that will get the moshpits going, the latter merging nicely into 'Harsh Degrees', which is carried by a feisty synth bass. shame then end 'Drunk Tank Pink' with a paragon of an album closer. In this record's context, 'Station Wagon' is a rather slow burner, though driven by continuous bass eights. Halfway through, those turn into piano eights. Steen starts monologuing over them as they're joined by bass, as well as guitar and drums that get increasingly heavy. With one minute left, the track mutates into an ecstatic cloud of fuzzy guitars and wild drumming. What an ending.

With great production (guitars!), slower moments and careful detail to percussion, this isn't your classic, dirty UK garage rock album. But that's what makes it one of the most promising rock album of the year so far. 'Drunk Tank Pink' delivers a fair share of sweaty head banger tracks, combined with songs that go into a more thought-through direction, musically and lyrically. Especially when it comes to the production, shame made much progress with this album, introducing an interesting percussiveness to the post punk idea. This is definitely my favorite new album of the year so far.

Favorite tracks: Water in the Well, Human for a Minute, Nigel Hitter, Alphabet, Born in Luton

My copy is not noisy with clicks or pops, but is still one of the worst sounding pressings I own. Something is wrong with the highs. It sounds like there is some serious excitement/drive on everything from like 4k to 10k (at least) and what's below 4k is indistinct and totally drowned out by the highs. I can't imagine how this could be an individual copy isolated pressing-stage issue. It sounds more like a mastering/lacquer issue but I am not familiar with all of the things that can go wrong when manufacturing vinyl. Does anyone else have a copy that has distortion on the highs?

Vinyl is flimsy and cupped. At least it's free of noise, unlike the colored pressing.

Solid mastering on the record, what you would expect from a post punk band. The pressing itself is solid as well, side 1 plays perfectly whereas side 2 has some background noise on the first couple tracks but nothing that overpowers the music. Great music the whole way through!