The follow-up to 2018's debut Songs Of Praise, was produced by James Ford (Arctic Monkeys), and will be out on January 15th via Dead Oceans. Pre-order your copy here.
There are moments on Drunk Tank Pink where you almost have to reach for the sleeve to check this is the same band who made Songs Of Praise. Such is the jump Shame have made from the riotous post-punk of their debut to the sprawling adventurism and twitching anxieties laid out here. The South Londoner’s blood and guts spirit, that wink and grin of devious charm, is still present, it’s just that it’s grown into something bigger, something deeper, more ambitious and unflinchingly honest.
To cope, guitarist Sean Coyle-Smith barricaded himself in his bedroom. Barely leaving the house and instead obsessively deconstructing his very approach to playing and making music, he picked apart the threads of the music he was devouring (Talking Heads, Nigerian High Life, the dry funk of ESG, Talk Talk…) and created work infused with panic and crackling intensity.
“For this album I was so bored of playing guitar,” he recalls, “the thought of even playing it was mind-numbing. So I started to write and experiment in all these alternative tunings and not write or play in a conventional ‘rock’ way.”
Frontman Charlie Steen, meanwhile, took a different tac and attempted to party his way out of psychosis. “When you’re exposed to all of that for the first time you think you’re fucking indestructible,” he notes. “After a few years you reach a point where you realise everyone need a bath and a good night’s sleep sometimes.”
The genius of Drunk Tank Pink is how Steen’s lyrical themes dovetail with the music. Bassist Josh Finerty had begun to record the band’s divergent ideas at home in South London which were then fleshed out in a writing trip in the Scottish highlands with electronic artist Makeness, before sessions in La Frette studios in France with James Ford.The result is an enormous expansion of Shame’s sonic arsenal.
The band have also aired the video for the album track "Water in the Well". Watch it below the tracklist.
Songs Of Praise tracklist:
01. Alphabet
The band have also aired the video for the album track "Water in the Well". Watch it below the tracklist.
Songs Of Praise tracklist:
01. Alphabet
02. Nigel Hitter
03. Born in Luton
04. March Day
05. Water in the Well
06. Snow Day
07. Human, for a Minute
08. Great Dog
09. 6/1
10. Harsh Degrees
11. Station Wagon
(facebook.com/shamebanduk)
Tags: Shame
