ALBUM REVIEW: Heed Case – Mongo (Hound of the Suburbs)
Northern noise merchants Heed Case are the latest musical project of long-time Angelic Upstarts guitarist Neil ‘Newts’ Newton, and this is their second album.
Their first, last year’s All The Rage (reviewed here) saw him team up with psych-rock bassist Si Cadelik to get some of the things about modern life which were irritating him off his chest.
Now a three-piece after being joined by drummer Mr Dusty, Heed Case have made a very different album as the follow-up, moving away from a traditional punk sound into new territory.
Mongo takes its name from a term the band have coined to encapsulate their shared neurodivergent traits – all three members are diagnosed with autism, ADHD, and learning disabilities.
Over the course of 10 tracks, they share what it’s like to live with such conditions, and how they can shape everyday life.
Newts handles vocals and guitar, and the rhythm section have locked in with ease. But Heed Case have gone a step further and added synths and samples, giving this album much more of a post-punk feel.
Jagged guitar and irregular beats punctuate ADHD, a suitably chaotic opener which tries to take you inside the head of a sufferer who is “impulsive, can’t sit still, destructive, too many pills.”
Cuckoo Wackadoo seems to be about easy it is to label people who are different, while Freaked, which picks up the pace, adds synths to the guitar, bass and drums, plus some background noise and even a sample from that most trippy of kids’ TV shows, Magic Roundabout!
Manic, powered by a frantic bassline, urgent guitar and surging synths, sounds like Sigue Sigue Sputnik in places as it attempts to explain how neurodiverse people struggle to cope. Over the maelstrom Newts admits: “Some spin 11 plates, I’m barely spinning one/I’m struggling to concentrate, with all that’s going on.”
Masked Up is about hiding how you feel, and wishing you had the same level playing field as ‘normal’ people, while OCD addresses compulsive behaviour – “got a place for everything and everything’s in place … OCD, OCD, OCD, you gotta say it times three.”
Overwhelmed highlights how those on the spectrum can feel unable to cope with the least bit pressure, and how fear of how they are going to react is almost as bad as a situation itself.
“Another week, here it comes again/Another week, seven days are like 10 … Overwhelmed, it’s just another trait/To add to the many, already on your plate.” It does end of a note of defiance, urging: “Don’t let it bend your spirit or break it.”
Tyrants is a departure from the overarching theme of Mongo, and probably the closest Heed Case come to the anger of the first album, if not its sound. To a backdrop of bobbling bass and woozy synths, Newts lashes out at those who make life tough for the working class.
His old Upstarts mucker Mensi would be proud as he rants: “Hello Mr Tyrant, how do you do/I’d like to punch you in the face, until you’re black and blue,” before going on to warn that eventually they will get what they deserve. And is that a snippet of The Blaydon Races I hear?
It’s one of my favourite songs on the album, and is followed by another, Why Can’t You, which contrasts the way everyone is different. Things are brought to a close by Zoners, about those who are quite happily lost in their own world, and just want to be left alone.
I’m not neurodivergent, so can’t pretend to know how it feels, but Mongo – taken from the horribly derogatory word ‘mong’, which thankfully seems to have disappeared from our lexicon – does its best to give us ‘normal’ people an insight into the lives of the one in seven people who are. 8/10.
