Mclusky : the world is still here and so are we
When Cardiff trio Mclusky first resurfaced in 2014 to play a string of benefit gigs to raise money for venues at risk of closure like Le Pub in Newport and the Buffalo Bar in Highbury, fans of noise rock had reason to celebrate. Although the band were clearly still finding their feet on their 2000 debut My Pain and Sadness Is More Sad and Painful Than Yours, in the years since its release, their 2002 follow-up Mclusky Do Dallas has come to be regarded as one of the best albums of the 2000s, while their then-final album, 2004’s The Difference Between Me and You Is That I’m Not on Fire, produced two singles that entered the UK top 80.
After an apparently exciting last show supporting the much-missed Shellac at London’s Scala in late 2004, the band abruptly disbanded in early 2005 following a gear theft in the U.S. that caused their tour there to be aborted. Although the band have been playing shows under their current line-up (which is now more long-standing than their original one) relatively frequently, fourth album the world is still here and so are we arrives via Ipecac Records as Mclusky’s first full-length studio release in more than two decades.
Leadoff track “unpopular parts of a pig” makes for a strong opener, with guitarist and lead vocalist Andrew “Falco” Falkous’ renditions of lines like “I flexed my nails / I nodded my mane / And no one in the garden had sex that afternoon” counterintuitively having a fair amount of melody to them that make them linger in the memory long after the song has ended. Standouts “cops and coppers” and “way of the exploding dickhead” are both solid and well-written songs, if not as memorable as the opener. The guitars on “people person” and “the battle of los anglesea” are satisfyingly crunchy, with bassist Damien Sayell taking over vocal duties on the latter song. “the competent horse thief” and “chekhov’s guns” recall Future of the Left, the band that Falco and drummer Jack Egglestone formed after Mclusky’s initial dissolution, and fans of that band should find plenty to love here.
A real highlight of the album’s halfway point, though, is “kafka-esque novelist franz kafka,” a hard, fast, two-minute indie-punk song that stands up alongside Mclusky’s best tunes and will doubtless sound great at the band’s forthcoming live shows. When you hear “autofocus on the prime directive” and “juan party-system,” two similarly short and speedy selections, it again hits on a gut level that these are songs are custom-fit for the immediacy of the live stage. The pace slows down on “the digger you deep” and the Slint-esque “not all steeplejacks,” but the cohesion between the solid rhythm section and Falco’s guitar remains solid.
They maintain this tempo on “hate the polis,” the album’s relatively contemplative finale that’s also one of only three tracks here to exceed the three-minute mark. Though it lacks the immediacy of many of the other songs on the record, its choral refrain is undeniably infectious and memorable and serves as evidence that the band have lost none of their talent for composing simple yet insistent melodies in the decades since The Difference Between Me and You’s release.
With the world is still here and so are we, mclusky show that they are indeed still here and making songs that are equally as or even more energetic and fun than those being offered up by their contemporaries. If the world is still here isn’t on par with Mclusky Do Dallas, it nonetheless surpasses their debut and equals their third album in its songwriting quality. Their recent live shows have proven Mclusky to be a band with plenty of gas left in the tank, and this album serves as the recorded proof.
Label: Ipecac
Year: 2025
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Mclusky : the world is still here and so are we
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