Sunday 23 August 2020

Pardon Us - Laugh It Up



  If you pay any attention to the UK punk scene, you probably already know that Liverpool trio Pardon Us (https://www.facebook.com/wearepardonus) released a new album a couple of days ago called Seamless. It's a swift follow up to last year's excellent Wait (a song from which ended up as my second favourite of 2019 https://justsomepunksongs.blogspot.com/2019/12/top-50-songs-of-2019.html). Despite the small gap between releases the band, Morgan Brown (vocals/guitar), Alex Howard (bass/vocals) and Gabrielle Dos Santos (drums/vocals), have kept their standards very high and produced another record that'll definitely feature on many 2020 lists.

  Don't approach Seamless expecting many surprises. What you get (and to be honest it's what we  want) is a dozen more tracks of the "mild mannered/severely polite" melodic punk that they're renowned for. Picking a favourite is nigh on impossible given the standard throughout is uniformly high but the band themselves have already nominated a couple of contenders in the form of the videos they've released https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E--96w7AXCY &   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0SgW3bxILI

  Other "should be smash hits" are plentiful so I suggest you have a good listen to the lp and make up your own mind. It's available via Everything Sucks Music on yellow with black splatter vinyl and digital download :  https://pardonus.bandcamp.com/album/seamless

  I was tempted to go with Still Needs Singing but that gets a mention from Emma Prew in her excellent review for Colin's Punk Rock World (https://colinspunkrockworld.blogspot.com/2020/08/album-review-seamless-by-pardon-us-by.html) or maybe I should have gone with Grace as that's really made a big impression after a few plays but the track that I'm selecting to post is an impressive example of their left leaning sociopolitical worldview and just as importantly is very catchy too. It's called Laugh It Up...

See us lining up at food banks
Ashen-faced and drained of pride
And from your
Silk-upholstered sanctum
You can't help
But see the funny side
Laugh it up while you can
Laugh it up while you still can
Let's see if you still think it's funny
When all your plans
Have gone to seed
Let's see if fat cats can still scarper
Let's see if blue blood can still bleed
And all your power and privilege
And all the fortune you've found
And all the suck-ups and sycophants
Won't help you out this time around


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