ALBUM REVIEW: Bad Nerves – Bad Nerves

New York has THE STROKES. Michigan has The WHITE STRIPES. Ohio has THE BLACK KEYS. And London has BAD NERVES. It’s a bold claim to bundle together America’s top-tier garage-rock legends with a British quartet who’ve been bubbling up under the radar for the last few years, but it’s one the quartet can lay claim to on their pummelling punk-rock self-titled debut. 

BAD NERVES shoot out of the gate like a junkie shooting up on a Saturday night, delivering a devastating dosage of blissed-out west-coast power-punk that panders to the garage-rock pantheon. New Shapes slip-and-slides through Too-era FIDLAR, it’s snotty summer sing-alongs sounding like a spiritual sibling to West Coast whilst Baby Drummer drives home seventies-styled THE RAMONES-laden punk-rock with the psychedelic bluesy grooves of latter-day The Black Keys. Terminal Boy is BAD NERVES meeting in the middle of their spectrum, spinning plates as pedal-to-the-metal indie-punks with attitude, mixing big-room hooks with adrenalised rough-and-ready riff-n-roll. In layman’s terms, BAD NERVES as an album is a smorgasbord of sights and sounds from an Americanised history of punk rock. 

As if they were nothing but a band in a basement bashing through their jam session before they set off out for a night on the town, BAD NERVES burst through their twelve-song calling-card quicker than it takes a pop punk-themed pizza to arrive (that’s under half an hour, to be precise). You’d be forgiven for thinking this was a bit too brazen for a debut statement, but it works in their favour – there’s not a single moment that lets you linger for too long, meaning you’re frequently coming back for more like you’re an addict looking for your next fix of the good stuff. Mad Mind barely makes the two-minute mark and is all the better for it as it’s harmony-soaked hooks grapple onto your eardrums and wriggle their way in long enough to make a lasting impact whilst Last Beat, one of BAD NERVES‘ shortest songs, benefits from it’s blink-and-it’s-over attitude. 

There’s an argument to be made for punk as fast-paced as this to be one of two things: either a politicised call-to-arms or a debrief on a life of debauchery. Whilst BAD NERVES for the most part stick to their American influences sonically, they shake off their roots in favour of spurting out slick sing-along friendly quips that tackle the anxiety-riddled social media-obsessed labyrinth of growing up in modern day Britain – but full-throttle frontman Bobby Nerves mostly sings about being born in the wrong generation, and making the most of bringing that to the millennial mess we’re in.

On the blisteringly glistening Palace, he perfectly captures the album’s overall sentiment: “a seventies punk with 21st century blues.” Whilst it’s more pomp than it is punk in places, Bobby and co. ruminate on the ridiculousness of inequality in the modern age, quipping poetically on New Shapes that “we live and we die but to the same sound/ I want you around/ the new shapes of a generation.”

Bobby Nerves has spoken previously about his longing for something exciting to happen in music again, for a band to come along and totally change the game, to champion guitar music again. Well if their self-titled debut is anything to go by, then BAD NERVES are the answer – this is nothing short of a perfect prototype for a new wave of garage-punk. 

Rating: 10/10

Bad Nerves is set for release on November 20th via Killing Moon Records. 

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