EP REVIEW: A Playground For Sad Adults – Phoxjaw

Here’s a question for you – when is a new album not a new album? The answer, or at least one of them, is when the material has been around for a while but never committed to tape. This is the case with A Playground For Sad Adults, the new EP by Bristol noise-makers PHOXJAW, out today via Hassle Records. A number of the tracks present have been in the band’s arsenal since the very beginning and helped to shape their dynamic and incendiary live performances, but this is the first occasion where they have been processed in the studio and now unleashed onto the world.

Given the presence of songs that have been played live since last year and before, A Playground For Sad Adults picks up where last year’s explosive Goodbye Dinosaur… left off, but it provides further validation that PHOXJAW are a band to seriously look out for. The blend of both BIFFY CLYRO and DEFTONES on Monday Man is tastefully done, both influences working in total harmony as the track drives along on a wave of heavy, alt rock.

Lead single, the wonderfully titled Melt, You’re A Face Of Wax had a great stomp behind it and the gang vocal chorus is seriously infectious; Whale, Whale, Whale is equally abrasive as it is serene, flowing nicely between the two as it goes. Bodiesinthewall starts with a jarring piano as the guitars from Josh Gallop and Alexander Share gradually creep in, the playful and jovial lyrics penned by front man Danny Garland providing a nice contrast to the music which gradually gets darker until it crescendos into a wall of crashing drums, fuzzy guitar and screamed vocals. Closing track The Curse Of The Button Man slows the tempo down but as a result becomes a crushing force of nature, finishing with a sinister, child-like chant of “The playground falls, the playground falls, the playground falls silent,” and a growing volume of feedback that cuts off abruptly, leaving a sense of unfinished business and the burning desire to hear more from PHOXJAW, the musical equivalent of a television series cliffhanger.

In the autumn, PHOXJAW will commence their first ever European tour opening for BLACK PEAKS with JAMIE LENMAN also present on the bill, and it goes without saying that they will turn heads at every venue and pick up a serious amount of fans along the way. A Playground For Sad Adults is their next step on the path to a very bright spotlight and it’s one that not only do they already deserve, but serves as a very exciting prospect for just what they could achieve when they get there.

Rating: 8/10

A Playground For Sad Adults is out now via Hassle Records.

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