The Bug Club return with Every Single Muscle, their fifth album and third for Sub Pop. Written between relentless touring and time back home in Caldicot, it captures Sam (guitar/vocals) and Tilly (bass/vocals) in full-throttle form.
Opening salvo ‘Miss Wales 2012’ sets the pace: sub-two-minute blasts stacked with wiry riffs, quickfire hooks and the duo’s unmistakable back-and-forth. Across eighteen tracks, they cram in punchy solos (sometimes begrudgingly allowed), elastic guitar interplay and more ideas than most bands manage in twice the runtime. It’s lean but loaded – efficient maximalism with a garage-rock snarl.
Where its predecessor cast a wry eye over the everyday, Every Single Muscle turns that gaze inward. Not soul-searching so much as self-dissection, the songs prod at the absurdity of being human with deadpan humour and sci-fi detachment. Bodies, boredom and identity are fair game; by the closing moments, even humanity itself feels negotiable.
Fast, funny and fiercely hooked, this is The Bug Club at their most direct – and most tightly wound.
Opening salvo ‘Miss Wales 2012’ sets the pace: sub-two-minute blasts stacked with wiry riffs, quickfire hooks and the duo’s unmistakable back-and-forth. Across eighteen tracks, they cram in punchy solos (sometimes begrudgingly allowed), elastic guitar interplay and more ideas than most bands manage in twice the runtime. It’s lean but loaded – efficient maximalism with a garage-rock snarl.
Where its predecessor cast a wry eye over the everyday, Every Single Muscle turns that gaze inward. Not soul-searching so much as self-dissection, the songs prod at the absurdity of being human with deadpan humour and sci-fi detachment. Bodies, boredom and identity are fair game; by the closing moments, even humanity itself feels negotiable.
Fast, funny and fiercely hooked, this is The Bug Club at their most direct – and most tightly wound.
Pickup available at Dreamhouse Records London
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