Carsick – Drunk Hymns | EP Review

Being carsick is horrible. As many will know, the nausea that comes with flying over speed-bumps and crashing into potholes is insufferable. Thankfully Salisbury's Carsick offer a thrills of such wild journeys with their lairy new EP, a body of work that may result in vomit, but for entirely different reasons.

The group’s debut EP, Drunk Hymns is essentially what it says right on the tin. Musically inspired by those indie-rock, post-punk and alternative hip-hop acts that soundtrack those lost and blurred nights where we as a collective society desperately search for catharsis at the bottom of a glass, the smattering of tracks that bind this EP are the sound of those small town night outs that characterise the UK’s drinking culture. However, this isn’t an EP that celebrates such a culture – nor is it one that condones it. Instead, it’s an honest, raw and tongue-in-cheek snapshot of the younger generation’s experience with the world renowned drinking culture that the UK has become known for.

‘Anaconda Frank’, the first of the four tracks on this EP, immediately establishes the rowdy nature of Drunk Hymns. Opening the record not unlike how a gaggle of students already loaded from pre-drinks would barrel into a quiet pub on a Thursday evening, the overdriven riffs and the breathless vocals of Joe Richardson propel the track forward with a sense of energy and reckless abandon that can only come after two or three pints of snakebite. It’s rowdy, boisterous, masculine – and with it’s sense of overconfidence – harkens thoughts of Jamie T loaded on Dragoon Soop having a drunken brawl with Snayx and Kid Kapichi.

The proceeding likes of ‘Nothing To Do’ and ‘Runner’ serve as a welcome antidote to the masculinity of ‘Anaconda Freak’ though. Much akin to it’s namesake, ‘Nothing To Do’ laments how the cost of living crisis has only compounded the lack of opportunities available for the emerging generation and how an exacerbated drinking culture is the natural result of such a crisis. However, it’s the brilliant dichotomy between indie composure and reckless punk that highlights this wonderfully, with Richardson penduluming between frustrated bellowing and spoken word hip-hop lines that’s comparable to the timbre and flow of Scroobius Pip. Meanwhile, ‘Runner’ is a classic and upbeat ode to grappling with adolescent love and loss that see’s Carsick channeling their evident Jamie T inspiration. It’s simply fun and depending on your age, either poignant or worryingly nostalgic.

‘Heartbreak At The Anchor & Hope’ is the outlier within this record though. The final of the four tracks, this closer is a tender and totally despondent ballad that’s sonically at odds with the ceaselessly chaotic three other tracks present. Yet, with the track thematically exploring intoxication as an escape from heartbreak and providing an unflinching documentation of the shameful feelings of hatred that arise with loss, it perfectly plays into the record’s thematic theme whilst simultaneously playing witness to more vulnerable side of a band who up until now has been seen as commuted to musical rebellion and adolescent debauchery. If anything, it could also be seen as mirroring to the final word of the drinking culture as a whole – how it’s fun up until the point where it’s anything but.

In all, Drunk Hymns is a great – if not slightly polarising – sound of a band ready to tackle the UK punk scene. Whilst those with little interest in indie-punk in the key of a lads night out will find little to love here, this EP is four shots of musical debauchery ready to slammed for those who wish for their punk to be unfiltered, undiluted and a catalyst for blurry-eyed bedlam.