Mclusky - The World Is Still Here And So Are We (Album Review)
Monday, 12 May 2025
Written by James Palaczky
Photo: Damien Sayell
Mclusky’s return with their fourth record after a mammoth 20-year dry spell will doubtless thrill die-hard fans, but for anybody looking in from the outside the main question to ask is simply: why now? There are a lot of typically sardonic answers scattered throughout ‘The World is Still Here and So Are We’ but perhaps the only one that matters is: because everything’s broken.
Frontman Andy Falkous comes in hot with skull-rattling opener Unpopular Parts of a Pig. Furious drums, crashing cymbals and ear-piercing riffs bombard the listener from the get-go. With hardly any songs going over the three-minute mark the record immediately transports you to a dingy basement where you’re half expecting a Vans high top to clock you in the temple at any moment.
Ballistic singalong punk anthems like Chekov’s Guns rile things up to the point of frenzy and, while it’s obvious Mclusky haven’t reinvented the wheel here, at times they reach the heights scaled by Fugazi and Dead Kennedys.
Listen to Cops and Coppers, meanwhile, and you’ll be met with sharp, borderline-ska riffs ripped straight from The Clash’s playbook. But it’s not a caricature. The clue is in the album’s title — Mclusky are not prepared to change their sound or their stances just for the sake of being relevant. Duly, they feel as incisive as ever.
The centrepiece of the album is undoubtedly People Person, where rhetorical socio-political commentary oozes out and unmercifully takes aim at the great armchair martyrs who regurgitate tone-deaf, ignorant political views with the shelter of hindsight.
Despite what you’ve heard a thousand times before, punk’s not dead. But if ever it were in peril, be sure Mclusky would, like a post-hardcore Batman, rise out of the shadows once again to stamp out any such talk. Here’s hoping it won’t be another 20 years until we see them again.
McLusky Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows:
Fri May 23 2025 - MANCHESTER Gorilla
Sat May 24 2025 - LEEDS Brudenell Social Club
Thu May 29 2025 - LONDON Electric Ballroom
Sat May 31 2025 - BRISTOL SWX
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