Loose Fit - Social Graces

Just over two years ago Sydney band Loose Fit released their highly promising, eponymous  EP, mere weeks after Australia closed its borders and locked down for the pandemic. Like many of us, they spent the next two years wondering if, and when, life would return to normal. Social Graces becomes a document of that time, a collective expression of their hopes and fears, and a reflection on what remains relevant in 2022.
 
Even on first listen, Social Graces is an impressive debut. After half a dozen plays I am recalling how I felt in 2013 when the first Savages album was released. Or that Elastica debut in 1995. Or, to go back even further, The Stranglers' 'Rattus Norvegicus' in 1977. Each of those albums borrowed heavily from earlier rock influences, yet each captured a moment in time with lucidity and passion. And so it is with 'Social Graces'.
 
The title track is brash and frenzied, a rush of energy tempered by post-pandemic social anxieties and nervous tension. Singer Anna Langdon delivers her vocals with the deadpan timing of Mark R Smith, whilst the rhythm holds tight courtesy of Max Edgar's edgy guitar and Kaylene Miller's insistent drumming. Richard Martin's bass guitar is pulsating and palpitatious, and remains a febrile driving force throughout.
 
On 'Cool Change' Langdon manages to sound like Howling Bells' Juanita Stein, yet on 'Stupid Drama' there are visions of X-Ray Spex as the saxophone kicks in and the confused uncertainties return - “Pretty good, pretty bad, could be better, could be worse”, accompanies her call to “party to the exit, please”. 'Best Face Forward' becomes an angst-ridden rant against our paranoic obsession with social media and it's manipulative algorithms, referring to the whole on-line circus as “an empty swamp”. 
 
From start to finish this is an absolute peach of an album, a juicy slice of  post-punk, pop perfection.
 
9/10