After releasing two of the most lauded / hyped / talked about punk rock EPs that a UK band has released in the last decade, what do you do? Well, if you’re Gnarwolves, you go ahead and release another one (and why not?)
‘Funemployed’, complete with the band’s now signature snotty skate punk artwork, sees Gnarwolves change stylistic tack a little – ‘Melody Has Big Plans’ segues from double time to half time without so much as a shrug, and the EP as a whole shows off a “darker” side to the band’s sound. It doesn’t get in the way of the tunes being catchy as fuck though, and though the EP doesn’t even manage to be ten minutes long there’s significant bolstering to the band’s live arsenal going on here.
With ‘Tongue Surfer’, Gnarwolves deliver another of the singalong moments they’ve been so brilliant at so far with “I’m not the same guy you kissed, I’m a miserable shit and you know it”, and though it’s certainly a bit more throwdown in delivery than ‘CRU’, the internal influences of the members seems to be meeting at an exciting mid point.
‘Limerence’ was the first track that the band revealed from the EP, and though it’s a bit of a slow starter, it’s a corker when it cracks in. The “…feel much better noooooow” into the chorus is fucking tops, and the vocal bounce between guitarist Thom and bass player Charlie is at the core of the band’s appeal. Both have a distinct, imperfect approach that makes them far, far more interesting than many of the identikit gruff punk / punk rock bands in the scene at the moment, and it just works.
‘High On A Wire’ closes things down in a shade over two minutes with a style more recognisable from ‘CRU’ than the rest of the EP, and it solidifies the fact that Gnarwolves are sticking around for a long time yet. ‘Funemployed’ is the sound of a band getting more and more comfortable in their skin and writing some anthems while they do it and, to be honest, Gnarwolves are a band that could keep releasing music in this fashion forever and we’d be more than satisfied. Great stuff.
TOM AYLOTT