Album Review :: Menace Beach - Ratworld

Menace Beach

Ratworld

January 19 2015 (Memphis Industries)

7.5/10

Words: Alison Mack

Leeds-based Menace Beach's supergroup line-up (which includes members of Hookworms, Sky Larkin and Pulled Apart By Horses) has drawn from its member composition to provide in this, their debut album, influential touches of garage, noise rock, punk, shoegaze and dream pop; the focal presence of Liza Violet and Ryan Needham's drawing the many rudiments together to produce a noise-squeal collection of 13 tracks, produced by Hookworms stalwart, MJ.

Opener ‘Come On Give Up’ is typical of much of the album, with its ”Fuck everything you ever wanted to be/Come on, give up, get lost with me” lines, and urgent, catchy appeal. ‘Lowtalkin’, too, is a frenetic launch pad that rumbles over two minutes in an intensity of excitement.

Highlights come by way of lead single 'Taste Like Medicine's frenetic pace and crashing hooks, the feedback squalls of ‘Fortune Teller’, and the shoegaze-esque of 'Blue Eyes', which veers off into a different direction from the album's grunge base; Violet exuding melting vocals effectively against slowly pulsing guitars that grinds to a finale of distortion. ‘Pick Out The Pieces’, its slower-paced companion, working equally well with the dual vocal collaboration.

'Ratworld' revolves around layers and textures nestled round and in-between the fuzzy twisted guitars. The one downpoint is the lack of distinction amongst much of the album's content. But that aside, it manages to keep its fuzzy head above the water on strands of gnarly noise and adrenalin.