SINGLE REVIEW: Millie Manders And The Shut Up – Angry Side b/w Can I Get Off? (self-released)
Millie Manders And The Shut Up are a four-piece cross-genre punk band from Norwich/London who have been winning lots of new fans over the last five years.
Fronted by the eponymous Millie Manders, they started out as a ska-punk band, but have morphed into something far more interesting, introducing elements of pop, metal and post-hardcore into their sound.
They released their debut album Telling Truths, Breaking Ties (reviewed here) in 2020, and have spent the intervening years building a reputation as an exciting live band.
Now, ahead of their long-awaited second album, they’ve unleashed a double A-side single of new material, with a short tour to accompany the release.
Angry Side, described by the band as “a letter to and from your angry inner teenager”, with Millie in self-analytic mode from the off as she sings “Things I did when I was 17 still haunt me in my daydreams”, before confessing “I only knew my angry side.”
It’s a huge slice of joyous, sax-soaked pop-punk, and it’s so infectious that you’ll be singing along long before the end.
On the flip side is Can I get Off?, where the band nail their political and humanitarian colours firmly to the mast in a song with rapped verses and sang choruses.
This time the subject of her ire is punk bands who are quick to shout out their hate for Tories, but don’t or won’t back humanitarian causes like the suffering of the Palestinians at the hands of Israel.
Against an insistent bassline and shards of jagged guitar, her anger is palpable as she asks: “Can I get off of this planet/Is there a way to escape/From all the pain and destruction/And fascists fuelling the hate.”
As a stop-gap until the album arrives later this year, this will do nicely, thanks.
