It says a lot about a band’s longevity when it’s painfully obvious that their debut album gets better with age; in the 14 months that have elapsed since The Chapman Family released their explosive first outing, ‘Burn Your Town’, their stock has risen considerably. This is the same band who took their sweet time making the record rather than rush it out due to hype. All that hype was more than justified by the album, but even so, their new EP ‘Cruel Britannia’ is a massive step up for the band, who are now a quintet.
The band’s output has always been politically-charged, but just doing by its title, it’s clear that the EP is a state-of-the-nation address; the verdict is that the nation is, in a word, fucked. With everything that’s been going on, it was only a matter of time before they got around to something like this, which makes the 21-minute EP (rounded out by a devastatingly powerful cover of The Smiths’s ‘Every Day is Like Sunday) take on greater significance.
The entire thing is self-produced, and the band have opted for a raw sound that brings out the new dynamics brought to the table by the line-up changes. Lead single ‘No More Tears’ kicks things off, its racing tempo adding a sense of intense urgency to what is already a highly-charged song. The final chorus of ‘No more lies! No more fear! No more hate! No more tears!’ ranks among the most powerful moments in the band’s catalogue so far.
The title track follows, and this is where Kingsley Chapman really hits his stride. ‘Red, white, black and blue’ is how he sees Britain, and his words are given a greater resonance by his powerful baritone vocals. The Chapman Family have never had the most optimistic view of the world, and their assertion that ‘this English life is falling apart’ will strike a chord with many. The pessimistic nature of the EP is balanced out by the band’s penchant for keeping things fast and furious; things never become too overwhelmingly bleak, but this EP isn’t a happy listen by any stretch of the imagination.
The last piece of new material on the EP is ‘Summer Song’, which is given extra depth by featuring piano, used effectively but sparingly. Whereas the rest of the new songs on the EP can be bracketed under ‘relentless noise-rock’ (essentially an evolution of what has come before), ‘Summer Song’ features interesting use of dynamics and a song structure which delights in twists and turns, before going full-throttle for its ending. In a way, ‘Cruel Britannia’ is the logical next step from ‘Burn Your Town’; raw, hectic and mad as hell, it sets up the next phase of The Chapman Family perfectly. As they’ve been so fond of reminding us in recent years, they are not a cult: what they are is a tour-de-force, and sound like they’re prepared for huge things.
Cruel Britannia is released on June 18th via Best Before.
Posted by Gareth O’Malley
