ALBUM REVIEW: Bob Vylan Presents The Price Of Life – Bob Vylan

When grime-punk duo BOB VYLAN burst out of the tower blocks of London in 2020 with their debut album We Live Here, they waged their war on the Queen, the police, and the racist bigots Britain churns out systematically. Bob Vylan Presents The Price Of Life mutates their grime-punk protest with anthemic Brit-pop, raging post-punk and jungle-sprayed dub to pull back the curtain on class warfare, economic crisis, and race in a modern masterpiece.

The album’s 15 tracks are weaved together like a tapestry, an interconnected universe that ties its concepts and commentaries tightly throughout. Whether it’s calling back to their debut on Wicked & Bad – “England’s ending, death’s still pending”, creating a narrative with song lyrics and titles, as GDP’s final line “…and the only joy I get is when I bait the bear” leads straight into follow-up Bait The Bear, or connecting themes between songs through recurring tongue-in-cheek observations like “a government killing off kids with two pound chicken and chips”; this is a concept record of the tallest order. 

Whilst their debut was filled with anger and rage, aimed at being cast as outsiders in their own land, The Price Of Life explores the class divide that’s crippling us, the inequality in healthcare that’s weakening us, and the miseducation of a nation that’s raised with racism under its skin. 

That said, BOB VYLAN work best when they’re connecting the dots. The fury of album highlight Take That travels across themes, a topical tirade that connects the crimes of Churchill and the Queen to the current political climate, spiralling into a Commons-worthy speech about health being revolution’s secret ingredient: “Cause the body gets sick of that shit / Wreaks havoc on the heart and live / And we can’t fight if we’re fighting our ticker.”

However, it’s clear to see throughout that baiting the bear is BOB VYLAN’s best weapon. In a short space of time, they’ve got homophobic artists booted off of festival lineups, called out the Mayor of London during a high-profile awards ceremony, and opened up arenas for legacy acts. 

The Price Of Life is no different, pulling no punches as they take on Maggie Thatcher – “Let’s go dig up Maggie’s grave and ask her where that milk went”, Elvis Presley – “Elvis was a hero to most but he never meant shit to me because the fucker was wack / And he hated blacks and he never made one hot track – straight facts”, and Churchill, the police, and British pride in a single line – “Yeah let the bitch drown / Got the gammons all feeling sick now / Wipe my backside with the St George’s flag”.

Pacing isn’t a problem for BOB VYLAN either, racing to the finish line in 34 minutes like they’re Usain Bolt chasing another record. There’s not a single song that outstays its welcome, with no two tracks ever sounding the same at any point. The abrasive drill of Must Be More folds into the anthemic electro-punk of Pretty Songs, before shifting into the neurotic nu-metal assault of Turn Off The Radio; the genre-hopping only reinforces the immediacy and urgency of their message.

If We Live Here was BOB VYLAN’s arrival, The Price Of Life is their main character moment, embracing their roles as revolutionary figures. Protest punk has been around since time immemorial, but it’s never sounded so good. 

Rating: 10/10

Bob Vylan Presents The Price Of Life is out now via Ghost Theatre Records.

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