Boisterous South-London punks Shame released their new album ‘Drunk Tank Pink’ today, brimming with unbridled irreverence, calculated wit and enough volume to leave scorched earth upon the ears of those brave enough to devour the whole lot in one go.
The album, featuring singles ‘Snow Day’, ‘Nigel Hitter’ and ‘Water in the Well’, marks a subtle evolution from their irate debut, 2018’s ‘Songs of Praise’, delving further into the murky abyss of punk discordance; where dewey-eyed pop melody is shown the harsh realities of human life, and the innocence is lost forever. Having said that, this album is laced with knives of brighter tone, featuring Talking Heads-style bounciness on ‘Nigel Hitter’ and early New Order momentum on ‘Snow Day’. The anger is often traded for facetiousness, exploring a darker context of combatting post-tour ennui.
Having completed production at the start of last year – with the hand of Arctic Monkeys producer James Ford holding the tiller at La Frette studios in Paris – ‘Drunk Tank Pink’ was primed, set and ready to unload both barrels of punk rage on 2020 with consummate speed and ferocity. However, like so many other albums of the last 12 months, the new Shame record was stung by the implications of the coronavirus, and delayed indefinitely.
“If you told us when we were recording [the album], that it was going to be a year until it was out, I would’ve cried,” drummer Charlie Forbes told NME. “It felt like we were on the final stretch. Everything we were planning to do this year just got pulled. This one massive thing that you were really looking forward to is not even happening this year, and it’s like…It was frustrating for all of us, but I think it’s going to pay off now.”
The name ‘Drunk Tank Pink’ derives from a shade of paint formerly blazoned across the walls of prison cells, psychiatric wards and indeed drunk tanks – designed to pacify the rampageous individual dwelling within. As a name, it isn’t a particularly true reflection of this album’s character, but instead holds deeper meaning to this particular group. “In my room, in my womb, is the only place I find peace,” bellows lead singer Charlie Steen on ‘March Day’. He refers to his bedroom in New Cross – a nursing home laundry room, drenched in the colour and nicknamed ‘the womb’ – where most of Drunk Tank Pink’s lyrical content was written. By his own admission, the renovation of his room was for the sake of cooling his own post-tour restlessness, the colour ‘Drunk Tank Pink’ serving to provide the same effect as it might in one of the aforementioned institutions. “That project was fucking great for me,” he told NME. “It gave my mind something to do.”
Find the full track-list of Drunk Tank Pink below:
1. Alphabet
2. Nigel Hitter
3. Born in Luton
4. March Day
5. Water in the Well
6. Snow Day
7. Human, for a minute
8. Great Dog
9. 6/1
10. Harsh Degreees
11. Station Wagon
