“When it rains, well it really fucking pours…”
Welcome to the best album name of the year, by England’s postpunk champions Martha. It starts with two whipfast rockers better than just about anything Blink 182 ever did, then launches to a third song that’s pretty much more of the first only with a different lead vocalist, which actually adds quite a bit of texture and feels like a major change. And it pretty much keeps going like that, nonstop hard-charging anthems, each as good or better than the first. And then there’s special songs like “Do Whatever” that sound almost like 1950s pop on steroids.
And the lyrics? Romantic as hell: “I keep dreaming that he’ll kill us and we’ll share a shallow grave.” That’s from Goldman’s Detective Agency, which has some of the funniest harmonies in a dark, dark song…Each song is full of surprises, making this one of the smartest, and most fun records to listen to from 2016.
Oh, and make sure you stick around for the final track, a tribute to the greatest DIY artists of all time, The Replacements.
This album may be absolutely perfect.
