New: Wild Beasts – Get My Bang

Wild Beasts - Boy King - P.C Tom Andrew - S17_119 1 - 100 dpiWITHBORDER

Wild Beasts ‘Get My Bang’ – Just Let Them Eat Cake

The majority of Wild Beasts’ output has obsessed about the idea modern masculinity. A dissection of modern Englishmen that pits the northern machismo of their Yorkshire upbringing against the politically correct metro-sexuality of the arty London circles of their adult lives.

The results of this artistic framework on albums Present Tense and, in particular, Smother remain thrilling and judging by ‘Get My Bang’ look set be joined by an even more obvious exploration of this theme on their upcoming album, Boy King.

Taking more than a few sonic cues from Silent Shout era Knife and Arctic Monkey’s AM, the track is the most accessible and nimble the art rockers from Kendal have ever sounded. It’s festival-ready chorus “that’s how I get my bang” poses as an uncomplicated lad-rock metaphor until it’s flipped mid-song “that’s how my bang get me” and begs the listener to unpack the emotional baggage of their own sex-life.

For a band whose output has previous thrived in the ambiguity of literary metaphors, this direct use of subterfuge shows an expansion of their songwriting and makes Get My Bang a new kind of explicit content altogether.