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New York's Drug Church write music that just sounds like them. They are clearly very proud of the fact too, aiming to polish a familiar sound rather than pull some surprises out of the bag. PRUDE is an album with a distinctly cohesive feel to it, the product of a band who really understands their craft. Saying that, however, might incorrectly create the impression that this album is same-y - each of the 10 tracks has a well-defined personality and offers something new. At only 28 minutes in runtime, PRUDE is easily digestible, but an album that leaves you full and satisfied.
'Mad Care' tricks you at first, with a slow, 20-second guitar drone to open the track. It’s not long before you’re dunked straight into the deep end of full-throttle punk. The song is fast-paced and desperate, opening the album’s themes of bad choices and owning up to yourself. Vocalist Patrick Klindon’s lyrics here are blunt and unforgiving, and his brutal delivery might make you want to hang your head in shame if you weren’t headbanging. There are a couple songs that bring out Drug Church’s melodic side, with “Myopic” being one of them. It’s a song that begs you to reminisce on past mistreatment, the gift of hindsight’s glasses bringing it “all to focus”. 'Myopic', along with 'Hey Listen', work to provide PRUDE with a fine seasoning of midwest emo, through beautiful tuneful guitar melodies undercutting gruff, heartfelt vocals. The sound is confident and assertive, never dropping for a second.
The lead single, 'Demolition Man', defends a well-established knack from the band for really evocative and vivid lyrics, using extended animal metaphors throughout to convey that mankind is just downright boring by comparison. It’s true - you wouldn’t catch a border collie wasting its days away in a call centre. Could you imagine fitting that tail into an office chair? The track screams of a frustration for everyday humdrum life, calling human nature into question, as if we could be so stupid as a species to fall victim to capitalism’s siren call. It’s a mundanity that we’re entrapped in just for something to do, Drug Church says, to the tune of heavy drums and a constant looping guitar riff towards the end. Thematic, one might argue.
What the band does really well is marry together thick, heavy chords with a pleasing and well-timed guitar overlay. There’s somewhat of a motif, heard in 'Myopic' and 'Slide 2 Me', of guitar tones that careen over the tracks, knowing exactly where to start and end to maximise the punches they add. It speaks of a band pushing out tracks like this for over ten years, eager to refine their sound rather than to revolutionise it. Sonically, the album really does have moments of being beautiful - the tones in 'Chow' are just lovely. It lifts the album as a whole to have moments of thunderous hardcore, as well as moments such as with 'Chow' where the band’s message is conveyed a little softer and more sincere in comparison. A potentially divisive theme underpins this track: don’t pretend that you’re right all the time, and that you’re void of criticism. It’s an appeal from the band for listeners to just be authentic, because everything ages badly. The track ends with a plea: “keep your circle small, it’s how you rescue yourself”.
The final two songs come as somewhat of a duo, outlining the last scenario in the album and resolving the feelings that have come with it. 'Yankee Trails' is a painfully detailed account of a friend’s struggle to kick a drug habit, taking them across the USA in that pursuit. The song lays the band’s hearts out bare on the table - and in lyrics so raw and open, sometimes it’s easy for melody and instrumentals to take a backseat. They, however, entirely hold their own, elevating the sore frankness of the lyrics to an anthem. 'Peer Review' acts as somewhat of a solvent for the emotions PRUDE has laid bare. It really demonstrates a maturity in all of these complicated feelings, with the line: “You can’t feel superior to the people you’re in it with: these are your peers, man, you’ve just gotta deal with it”. Drug Church’s lyricism is at a peak here: immediately accessible and candid, yet poetic and pointed with each word seeming specifically chosen.
'PRUDE' is most certainly an album worth listening to, and in fact is also an album that's well worth revisiting. It offers so much in every direction: the vocals, instrumentals, pure cathartic emotion, and prompts some serious introspection in its well-trodden but well-articulated themes. It’s not all deep and self-consumed, either, Drug Church have clearly had fun with this album, and it rings through upon listening.
'PRUDE' will be released on October 4th by Pure Noise Records.
Words: Erin Strom
Photo: Manuel Barajas
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