ALBUM REVIEW: The Sewer Cats – Obnoxious (TNSRecords)
Obnoxious is the second album from Manchester-based garage-punk duo The Sewer Cats, two years after their debut Cute Aggression (reviewed here).
It’s 11 slices of explosive noise which will make your speakers shake and your neighbours hammer on the walls.
It’s amazing what a racket a two-piece can make, as drumming vocalist Cass beats out the rhythm while guitarist Josh lays down fuzzy riffs which delve into grunge, bluesy and post-hardcore at times.
If you thought their first album was full of raw energy and anger, you ain’t heard nothing yet, as Obnoxious takes things to a different level.
It kicks off with Boo Hoo!, a feisty song about female empowerment which sticks a middle finger up at the patriarchy. Its riot grrrl energy is palpable as Cass sings: “Can’t take it away from me/Big pussy energy.”
90 Seconds To Midnight is a gloomy look at impending war which sounds like L7, while Tell Me Something True, packed with big grungy riffs set against a rockabilly beat, sees the Cats pull off an impressive change of pace for the first time on the album, but certainly not the last.
It takes off like a jet plane before slowing down then coming in heavier than ever as Cass unleashes more of the attitude which heavily punctuated the first album. “Piss on the pot/Or get off/Let me start out again” she demands in a song about toxic relationships.
Star & Garter is a sort of homage to the Manchester DIY scene’s leading venue, but also a put-down of ‘pumped up Billy Big Bollocks’ bands who act like rock stars as Cass sneers: “Drink the rider while you can/Cos guess what?/You’re never gonna make it.”
There’s another change of pace on You Cannot Be Serious, which starts out as a gently strummed acoustic number, with languid drums, but guess what? That doesn’t last. It soon erupts into righteous fury, and Cass lets the subject of what sounds like a painful break-up have both barrels, with the song descending into glorious squalling, pounding noise.
Title track Obnoxious sees the Cats at their raw, grungy confrontational best, calling out misogyny and sexism, while lead single Get It is a rant about female bosses who try to outdo alpha males in the way they behave as they show off their aspirational lives.
Toxic relationships are at the centre of That Night At…which again explores that loud-quiet-even louder dynamic that is so prevalent on this record. But it’s Cass who has the last laugh as she reveals: “You asked me if you could stay/And I laughed in your face.”
Parasites is a funky feline-themed number, while Lion Heart is a punk rock rager about never giving up. Filled with big fuzzy riffs, it implores: “So fierce/You’re stronger/Than you will ever know”.
The closing Our Band Could Be Your Life is another slow burner which seems to mine the hopes, dreams, trials and tribulations of being in an indie band, and again it taps into the quiet-loud-even louder dynamic to carry the album to a strong climax.
The vinyl version of the album contains a bonus track, Defibrillator, with Cass adding vocals to the post-rock instrumentals of Manchester power-trio [slab].
The band says they wanted to make a record that was “louder, harder, rawer, even unhinged at times – more obnoxious!” than Cute Aggression, and they’ve certainly succeeded. 8/10
- Obnoxious by The Sewer Cats is available on vinyl, CD and all streaming platforms. Get yours from TNSRecords HERE.
