Breakup Haircut: No Worries If Not!
(INH Records)
CD/Download/Streaming
Available 28th November
Breakup Haircut return with their long-awaited second album No Worries If Not! via INH Records
The DIY pop-punksters are back, with a joyous collection of songs following up their acclaimed debut album, Punk Dancing for Self Defence which was released back in 2022. The quartet, consisting of Ishani (vocals and rhythm guitar), Delphine (lead guitar and vocals) Ripley (vocals and bass) and Jordan (drums) formed for First Timers 2019, a fest where every band plays its first ever show, with two goals: being friends and playing fast. To this day they remain active and are enthusiastically involved in the London DIY community, acting as organisers in the aforementioned First Timers Fest, Decolonise Fest, and Girls Rock! London, all in the name of diversifying the London music scene and demystifying music-making as well as representing in various queer sports teams across London.
Speaking of No Worries If Not! the band explain, ‘It’s sharper, tighter and messier in the right places. We’ve worked with each other long enough to skip past the polite stuff and go straight to the real ideas. There’s still joy in it, but there’s frustration too – songs about imposter syndrome, getting ghosted by friends, watching men take up all the air in the room. Less sad, more mad. We wanted the recordings to hold all of that tension and make it feel immediate,’ adding, ’It’s garage rock. Literally. We recorded it in a garage. A week before we started, Jordan cleared it out and found a mummified bird and a thriving ecosystem of mould. Classic omen. We scrubbed it out, built a massive blanket fort to record in, and then Marvin (our ride-or-die producer) told us the fort was sonically cursed and made us tear it down and rebuild it. He was right. It hurt…’
The album kicks off with recent single Spite! Spite! Spite! with its upbeat frantic pace which is slightly juxtaposed with the tracks subject which Ishani had written about one of their oldest friends who faded from their life… ‘We’d known each other since we were kids, so I didn’t really have a blueprint for what long-term friendship fallouts even looked like. I asked him point-blank why it felt so hard to have a basic conversation, and he said, he just didn’t want to anymore’. Ishani continues, ‘What hurt wasn’t the ending. It was being left in the dark for a year, carrying the whole thing solo, trying to keep something alive that was already dead and not even receiving a memo. For a while, I went full over compensator mode and tried to become The Best Friend Ever out of spite. I even kept a spreadsheet of everyone I talked to regularly. He wasn’t on it. Victory…. but spite spreadsheets are weirdly useful. I still use it. It helps me show up for the people who do want to be there.’
Other previous singles The Algorithm Is Trying To Kill Me and I’m Okay (I Lied)
are also both included, the latter being an emo-pop confessional, woven with countermelodies and jangly guitars. The song captures the push and pull of a slow, painful breakup. Vulnerable but defiant, it’s a scream-in-your-car song disguised as a sunny indie-pop track.
Having listened to the album a number of times over recent weeks there is an urgency throughout which never gets boring, with a number of similar deceptively cheery sounding numbers, which I guess sums up its title, No Worries If Not! perfectly. The band rip through eleven of the dozen tracks in under 30mins with most sitting around the 2 minutes or less.
The final track, Remy, practically borders on prog rock territory by Indie sensibilities, in timing at least. The band explain, ‘So we were exploring new sounds and new ways of working together on writing in the moment—being present and seeing what stuck (and sometimes what didn’t) and we love what came out of our trust in the vision together.’ This is probably the best example of this on the record, more atmospheric, a more considered pace and a subtle wall of noise lasting an epic 5 minutes. It’s a great way to close and leaves you wanting more…
Breakup Haircut will be playing an album launch show with THWACK! and Jemma Freeman And The Cosmic Something at The Victoria, Dalston on Friday 28th November. Tickets here
For more info on Breakup Haircut visit their LinkTree
Photo supplied by INH Records
All words by Iain Key. See his author profile here or find him via his LinkTree
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