Eager to please pop punks Tirade are out for a good time on their debut self-titled EP. However there’s a severe lack of butts, or songs about butts, so the classification of pop is dubious. While the lack of an anarchic message also puts the punk part into question. These guys are more like college rock. Is that a bad thing?
While we wait to hear back from the establishment on whether it’s good for not [I wouldn’t wait up for it as I didn’t ask] understand that the juxtaposition of pop and punk is a two for one deal and that it’s tantamount to cultural appropriation. Making a mockery of punk culture by manipulating the style into a presentable and fashionable product.
The riffs Tirade sound are grungier than what their press release states. Add a bit of emo with the expression of the hardman vocals and voila. We have a better picture of what Tirade offer.
The music itself is funky and highly energetic, and even technically good, but despite this the EP shows so much restraint that it sounds like angels in bondage. Similar to the last days of Green Day or Feeder and where its Brit-pop sensibility is fit for Saturday morning TV. It’s music for for the Mummy Mafia. To rebel without a cause seems to be the theme here with patronizing levels of psychopathic considerations. The manufactured archetype of popular music is not something to aspire to.
The songs are rich with hooks pushing the concentrated blend of emotive sounds relentlessly to batter through the ears without any planning permission. Within the uniformity of a highly motivated expression the recording normalizes the passive aggressive intent. Losing some of its charm in a dictatorial slaughter of atmosphere and negating the mood while forgetting to use music as a vehicle for liberation. Instead using it to hold and constrain fears rather than hopes.
Technically the first EP from the UK’s Tirade is a fine accomplishment but it unscrupulously tries to capitalize on the memory of others successes. It’s a same shit different day release that brazenly tries to make as little an impact as possible, while having an astringent set of songs that sound frivolously good while being condensed into a blender.
7/10
