4.0
Essex power-pop bad boys fly out ferocious follow-up record.
Bad Nerves: make room on the list
For a band that have been doing the indispensable support slot routines with some of the biggest in rock right now (Royal Blood, Nothing But Thieves and The Hives, to name a famous few) the frenetic five-piece hailing from Essex finally get their moment in the sun.
And what a way to bathe. Fittingly titled, Still Nervous comes off their self-titled “debut” album in 2020, that was received rather ravishingly in the underground rock scene with the likes of Can’t be Mine and Baby Drummer leaving avid rock enthusiasts buying their merch post-show.
We’re certainly no strangers to them here. Funnily enough, their lost-lovers-in-London rendition of Palace displayed enough embezzling qualities for them to be flagged way back in 2021. Look, we’re just here to say – why didn’t you get on board sooner?
Still Nervous: song-to-song
Lead-lined with a ferociously fast distortion of guitar riffage, it’s a deliciously simple punk rock album serving the bands’ desire to go one further and spice it up on their formidable return to the studio. The first four tracks alone are representative just what the boys are cooking. Originally standalone pre-singles, they boast and brag louder together as one unit. Don’t Stop, Antidote, USA, You’ve Got The Nerve are all worthy anthem contenders with such hooked-in melodies that it’s filled the boat. Led by the golden trouts of the minute-and-a-half blitz of Don’t Stop and its seduced brother of Alright, both tracks led the way forward into the new unknown, post-debut territory.
Once you get a good handful of this lot, it’s not unremarkable that they’ve been seen as a bastard child to Ramones. Plastic Rebel and Television are equally electrifying, while scornful Sorry bends the band into a more melodic Strokes alt-noise. You Should Know By Now is right ol’ charmer too, embracing the bands’ fluidity to try new flavours, while the swathes of ending The Kids Will Never Have Their Say has hall-markings of Green Day’s Breakdown in 2009. It’s a 12-track 30-minute energy booster that doesn’t stay around for longer than it needs too (unlike some aforementioned Green Day albums) and certainly excites the kids in today’s punk scene.
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