ALBUM REVIEW: What’s Bad Enough? – Comfort
Glasgow’s COMFORT have released one of the most inspiring albums so far this year, What’s Bad Enough?. Full of unflinching confidence in being different sonically and culturally, it’s a thoroughly exciting listen from start to finish. There’s not much quite like this within punk right now, of this quality – the duo are rare in every sense of the word. Above all though, everything about it represents a queer effort to create.
Merging drums and the most extra synths creates an intense industrial environment for the whole album, laid on top are frontwoman Natalie’s vocals which add a well needed touch of campness. Billionaire Potential seeks to detail twisted attitudes of bankers, capitalists, corrupt politicians. Finding this sickness in money and greed helps display an image of ferocious mouth-watering jaws, bleeding eyes and bulging fists grasping pound notes. Short but sweet Real Woman is a fierce delivery of facts “I’m an adult woman, female / Penis or cervix, I’m real.” As soon as that line hits it’s clear that COMFORT aren’t shy at all, in fact they’re brimming with pride.
Too Many To Count is backed to magically palpable synths, like the sounds you’d find in a mythical fungal forest. It’s like being sucked into mad scribbles of a journal when you take in the lyrics, a journey through thrown away notes into contemplating what on earth you are reading. Luckily the snappy vocals of No Honest Work rebalances the scales with a ballistic chorus, the fury brings a refreshing pace to the album, like that of SHOW ME THE BODY.
If you wanted to get into a weird groove, then One Size Fits All is for you; somehow jumping into reminiscences of MF DOOM, which may be unexpected but is nonetheless welcome, it quickly morphs into a sort of mania. The fuzzy Same Shite, Different Lad is fuelled by the inadequacy of men, lads just wanting to shag people and then ghost, disappear into the void of quivering boys that façade as men. It perfectly sums up the ‘men are trash’ sentiment. Wild And Fragile closes with a beautiful duality reflected in shining synths and raw vocals, shutting the doors on What’s Bad Enough? with a touch of glory to it; it feels like COMFORT are content with the message they’ve sent.
The biggest problem What’s Bad Enough? has is that it tries to say so much, make so many different points, spilling them out in short songs that don’t really give you a chance to sink your teeth into. That said, they’re all topics that need to be spoken about more, shining light on trans people as a whole is something rarely taken note of in the music industry, or financial inequality and greed. COMFORT are amazing for wanting to tackle everything, but in the future they may do even better to circle on one theme.
Rating: 7/10
What’s Bad Enough? is out now via FatCat Records.
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