Gurriers’ sophomore album is a loud, fairly relentless, danceable feast. It embraces warped, guttural sounds transforming them into gothic industrial dance songs through the lens of a more accessible, stadium-adjacent indie guitar album.
You can very much hear the sounds of their Irish forebears, particularly Dublin’s weird and wonderful Gilla Band, who have long been touted as Ireland’s most influential band of the last decade. There are also traces of the heavier side of fellow BIMM Dublin graduates The Murder Capital, Belfast’s more electronic groups like Chalk, Enola Gay and Makeshift Art Bar, and the exquisite production of Dundalk’s Just Mustard. It’s very much a product of Ireland’s fantastic alternative scene of the past few years.
They turned to Bristol-based 6 Music dad favourites, Idles’ Irish member and lead guitarist Mark Bowen, who has pushed his own band’s more experimental sonic directions across recent albums. You can hear that he had a heavy hand in the massive sound this album creates. There’s also perhaps a more recent influence, with a crossover into London’s Fat Dog territory on tracks like ‘Waiting for Fisher’, which pushes their dancey direction.
The singles really rock in the right moments particularly on the title track, with politically infused lyrics focusing on the balance between personal struggles and the decaying world of war, digital isolation and capitalism. They draw on literary and academic ideas taking influences from Ireland’s great writers like Samuel Beckett and scholars such as mark fisher and Slavoj Jijek to deliver uniquely personal takes on a state of the world address. ‘Nobody’s Coming to Save You’ is a stadium sized call to action. ‘Pins’, meanwhile, has a huge chorus that recalls 90’s alt rock anthems and focuses more on the personal and how to love when you struggle to love yourself.
There are also slower moments, which really work. ‘Drones’ has a gothic drawl that drops the energy, with bits of Radiohead creeping in. Maybe my favourite track, it builds up halfway through into the most rewarding heavy section, with a great groove and lawnmower guitar.
‘I Wish I Was’ is a much-needed relief, with surprisingly pretty vocals and a warped, gentler almost shoegazey sound. There are some really interesting textures and synth and string layers. It of course builds into an epic wall of sound, but still feels more like a ballad.
Overall, It could be more dynamic, and the sound can be overwhelming to the point it blends into one. This means some songs are more memorable than others, but the most impressive thing here is the sound and production value, pushed through pretty strong indie songwriting. Gurriers have definitely grown into themselves on their second record and I’m excited to see where they go next. With their excellent influences, high value production and knack for anthemic songwriting there’s definitely more to come from the Dublin outfit.
Nobody’s Coming to Save You is out now on vinyl, CD and digital download – order via their official store
Gurriers: Website / Instagram / Facebook / Bandcamp
Review by Oscar Hackett
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