There is a band with intriguing potential in Naked Lungs. “It’s loud and it’s in your face” bassist Ryan Mortell told NME last year – a blunt yet righteous description of last summer’s debut EP, ‘Why Do People Change?’. Cutting their teeth in Dublin venues like the Workman’s Club and Whelan’s, a staunchly DIY spirit runs through the veins of the quartet, who now find themselves a crucial part of a rapidly expanding Irish scene. Alongside acts like M(h)aol, Enola Gay and Sprints, they continue to fly the flag for a punk movement which has shown no signs of slowing down in the wake of Fontaines D.C.’s mercurial success.
While doom-punk has always been the name of the game for the NME 100 graduates, debut album ‘Doomscroll’ takes us down new avenues; the ominous riff of ‘Shell’ is a standout moment. As the song creeps towards the five minute mark, there’s a haunting tension that demands to soundtrack the denouement of a thriller or drama, closing in on the cliffhanger to come. It’s vocalist Tom Brady who delivers the bleak last word: “I’ve been here before, I’ve flowered my grave.”
There’s an underlying consistency to ‘Doomscroll’ that eventually shines through, albeit concealed beneath unsteady noise-rock – and some slightly forced clichés. “You’re a winner / Oh chicken dinner” sticks out on an otherwise lyrically-astute ‘Gack’. Elsewhere, thematically, a loss of sense, reason and hope consumes the characters depicted across the record, who are faced with the bleakest of realities. Brady comes to terms with this truth on ‘The Garden’: “Sleeping, knowing living is terror”.
‘Database’ resembles the side of the album that is waiting to be unlocked in the live room; a driving bassline and deliciously melodic chorus recall Bloc Party’s 2012 single ‘We Are Not Good People.’ The track also works as a reminder that, beneath all the layers of ‘Doomscroll’, sometimes all you need is a fast and furious punk rock rager – a style Naked Lungs excel at when they embrace it with open arms.
