mclusky – the world is still here and so are we | Album Review

It's been 21 years, but Wales' wackiest punk band are back with a new album. Expect silly lyrics and a lot of screaming. You'll love it, promise.

“With the utmost respect, you are not a big fish until you sink ships / well, my ship is not sinking in this bathtub and the taps are just monuments”. Not – as you might expect – a bizarre translation prompt from the language app Duolingo, but lyrics from the track ‘chekov’s guns’ from the first mclusky full length to be released in over two decades. It’s a hiatus the band seems to enjoy acknowledging, the album title less a nod to that fact than an elbow in the ribs and a wink.

While mclusky have been touring on and off for over a decade after reforming to raise money for iconic South Wales venue Le Pub in Newport in 2014, all of their records prior to this were released between 2000 and 2004. the world is still here and so are we is a pretty big deal then for fans of the Cardiff-based noise rockers, whose cult status has only grown as a new generation of fans has been able to attend their rowdy live shows over the past 11 years.

With that in mind, it’s just as well that mclusky pick up where they left off with 34 minutes of noise, daftness, and – occasionally – downright oddity. Sonically the record is exactly what you’d expect; guitar, bass, drums, punk songwriting structure, and yelling. What sets the Welsh punk legends apart from other similar bands though is the inimitable lyrical and vocal wit of vocalist Andrew ‘Falco’ Falkous. The years haven’t blunted that trademark style either, which remains in equal parts charming, baffling, and hilarious.

The previously mentioned ‘chekov’s guns’ is a classic example of this, alongside ‘the digger you deep’ which sees Falkous sneer ‘first I was a pain in the arse / then I was a crab in a tale as old as time’. If you’re unfamiliar with mclusky, you’ll probably have already picked up on the fact that this all sounds deeply unserious. That is exactly the point. mclusky have always been a hell of a lot of fun to listen to due to their relentless commitment to absurdity, and that’s certainly the case here.

In fact, when the record is at its best, it’s so fun to listen to you’ll find yourself struggling to suppress a smile. ‘the competent horse thief’ is a jangly, off-kilter song that is catchier than it has any right to be, while ‘kafka-eque novelist franz kafka’ (the title alone a superb example of Falkous’ wry wit) is a two-minute rager that’ll be fun to pit to in a festival tent this summer.

It will take time to figure out exactly how the world is still here and so are we ranks against the rest of mclusky’s discography, but even now it’s obvious that it can hold its own against the classics. It’s a superb addition to the back catalogue of a band that’s one of the best hidden gems of the 00s UK rock scene, giving longtime fans something new to get their teeth stuck into, and hopefully helping them find a new clutch of fans who like their music loud and incredibly silly.