"Moral Panic" is the 3rd album by Essex lads, Nothing but thieves. The band formed in 2012, releasing their self titled debut album in 2015. They then went on to release their second album "Broken machine" in 2017 and now in 2020 we have 3rd album "Moral Panic. This is a 5 piece band comprising of Conor Mason on vocals, Joe Langridge-Brown on guitar, Dominic Crack on guitar, keyboard and piano, Philip Blake on bass and James Price on drums. NBT are a band I have been aware of for a number of years now. I think their most famous track and really the one track I had heard prior to this year was "Amsterdam" which was on their "Broken machine" record. I have to admit that song didn't really do it for me and it didn't make me want to investigate them further at that time.
Fast forward to March 2020 and one of my gig buddies brought a single which NBT just released to my attention which was "Is everybody going crazy?". This song was the first single to be released off "Moral Panic and is not only an incredibly catchy pop rock song. But it was also incredibly timely given what was happening in the UK when it was released. This was at the time Covid first hit and the country went into lockdown and "Everybody going crazy?" seemed to some up well the wellbeing of the nation, not only then but now as I type this.
It wasn't just a one off monster of song they released as the quality of the singles released after this continued to build the momentum for the album coming out in October 2020 showing not only quality but the bands versatility as well. "Real Love song" was another memorable anthem while "Unperson" mixed things up about with a really funky riff almost making you want to get up and dance to it. Then "Impossible" turned things on its head as it slowed things right down and really displayed the amazing vocal range of Conor Mason.
These tracks also fitted well into the album. One thing I really notice about this album is the amazingly creative variation in the structure of the songs. Yes there are songs which you could put in the typical verse, chorus, verse chorus pigeon hole like "Real love song and "Everybody going crazy". But when you look deep into the record songs like "Phobia" and "Can you afford to be an individual?". You find a band that really are trying to step out and do something different. Combine that with Conor Mason's extreme vocal range and different is something we really do have here. "Can you afford to be an individual? is probably my favourite song on the album at time of writing as its one of those songs which builds and builds and Conor's singing ends up sounding like Rage against the machine's Zach de la Rocha. Probably a comparison you wouldn't have thought when you first listen to NBT.
Overall this is a great record. I do think that it was unfortunate in the timing of the release of the album. They had always set October as the release date and this became a time when many other artists delayed their album too as well as other artists who had planned an October release date. Meaning it may not have had the attention it deserved at the time. And I would definitely admit I haven't spent as much time with this album as it deserves and that is why I am glad I have gone back to it now.
No comments:
Post a Comment