Featuring singles ‘I Don’t Wanna Do Nothing Forever’ and ‘Everyone Is Lying To You For Money’ the new album follows on from the bands most recent studio release Don’t Waste Your Anger which debuted at #1 on the ARIA Album Chart.
Ageing sucks. No one likes getting older; paying taxes, losing their looks and then eventually dying. And whilst it’s a fairly predictable aspect of life, it’s a concept that many blokes really struggle with.
That’s why The Smith Street Band’s Life After Football is such an important release.
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Part Wil Wagner’s personal journal and part ‘How To Be An Ageing Aussie Barfly For Beginners’, Smith Street’s sixth album doesn’t waste any time trying to be cool.
Instead, with lyrics covering the monotony of working life; the insecurities of hair loss and the fear of “being no one forever,” Life After Football resonates with a take-it-or-leave-it attitude. This is something that can be said about the band’s output, with the group’s newest effort highlighting a return to their fuzzy distorted origins.
It’s rough around the edges, as pub rock should be. ‘Everyone Is Lying To You For Money’ maintains a manic feeling throughout, with a haphazard nature to its rhythms matching the sullen lyrical content.
‘Dilute’ juxtaposes rapid drum patterns and quick staccato picking with slow drawled vocals, building into a high-stakes crescendo that sees Wagner spewing his vocals out with a rabid slurred cadence.
It’s Smith Street at their finest, with Life After Football highlighting a renewal of the group’s pub rock roots and showing that overall, the group are ageing pretty damn well.
Label: Pool House Records
Stream the album here.
