Endure - Special Interest (2022)
Ideated from: ending the year with some of my favorites of 2022 that I hadn’t written up yet.
Possibly cheating a bit on this one, since it’s only come out in the last month or so. Recency bias is a bitch when you’re thinking about everything you heard this year.
A lot of things people write about this record seem to involve the idea that a punk band is playing house and glam and disco. And they are, certainly. But I feel like people writing like this didn’t listen much to Happy Mondays or any of that “mad-chester” UK scene from the late 80s, an obvious touchpoint for me when I hear this.
Party music with a nervous, dangerous edge.
Doesn’t matter, though. This is a very well-considered mix of what’s catchy and powerful about all these scenes and styles. A genuine amalgam that defies easy definition.
Tracks I Liked
Cherry Blue Intention - A frenetic party-at-the-end-of-the-world anthem
Midnight Legend - a quick, almost Prince-sounding 80s pop intermission
Kurdish Radio - back to the desolate and menacing rumble
