Shame – Songs Of Praise LP

Young South London alt-rock alchemists forge pure and passionate guitar-frenzied post-punk beauty from chaos on their debut album.

South Londoners Charlie Steen (sings), Sean Coyle-Smith & Eddie Green (guitars), Charlie Forbes (drums) and Josh Finerty (bass) met in school, practised in Brixton (in the space that Fat White Family used (often borrowing their gear)) and ran their own club night (the beautifully monikered ‘Chimney Shitters’). This is their debut album - recorded at Rockfield in Wales - 10 perfect tracks in 10 days.

If you’ve ever had the good fortune to see an uber-exuberant live show from Shame you’ll be impressed at this album. How they’ve managed to capture, tame and implement the energy from those performances. Built on a world of finely aimed chaos this is a triumphant metamorphosis of fury into beauty. Soaring, crashing guitars, heavy heavy monster drums pounding and circling, spirals of sound lifting into the stratosphere with the call and response of many voices travelling from an ominous rumble to a scream let loose. These boys are alchemists and they’ve turned the quicksilver live show fraught with emotion and passion into audio gold. Epic sounds abound for your hearts.

Shame thrives on confrontation. Whether it be the seething intensity crackling throughout debut LP Songs of Praise or the adrenaline-pumping chaos that unfolds at Shame’s shows, it’s all fueled by feeling. Comprised of vocalist Charlie Steen, guitarists Sean Coyle-Smith and Eddie Green, bassist John Finerty, and drummer Charlie Forbes, the London-based five-piece began as school boys. From the outset, Shame built the band up from a foundation of DIY ethos while citing The Fall and Wire among its biggest musical influences. Utilizing both the grit and sincerity of that musical background, Shame carved out a niche in the South London music scene and then barreled fearlessly into the angular, thrashing post-punk that would go on to make up Songs of Praise, their Dead Oceans debut. From Gold Hole, a tongue-in-cheek takedown of rock narcissism, to lead single Concrete detailing the overwhelming moment of realizing a relationship is doomed, to the frustrated Tasteless taking aim at the monotony of people droning through their day-to- day, Songs of Praise never pauses to catch its breath. For fans of The Chameleons, Early U2, Happy Mondays, Echo and the Bunnymen and Alternative TV.