More about: Social Haul

Social Haul have released their debut album: "a collection of songs to get to know us by". Fronted by TRAAMS bassist Leigh Padley, Social Haul was formed during a musical lull, its sound invented without controlling expectations and through untouched curiosity and childhood friends Daniel Daws (bass) and Richard Trust (drums).

The album is delightfully chaotic and thankfully bookended with bursts of unapologetic complaints and necessary accusations. Each track directs the conversation on to the next raucous chapter that sometimes struggles to get to the point. But maybe that is the point. The post-punk trio wanted this album to be a focus of the ‘middle distance’, feelings of dissociation and rebellion that you can’t quite describe, but are tinged with personal urgency and importance through Joy Division slurs and charging White Stripes drums. 

‘Complain’ is a short protest: the clues in the name, a strong testament of what’s to come. We dive headfirst into a blood bath of post-punk, pop-punk and garage rock - but where is this going? Padley states that "the album loosely depicts a protagonist challenging perceived negative aspects of character, particularly in others, attacking in stages or episodes. Not dissimilar to that unfinished Bruce Lee movie…" 

So is if this is the ‘Game of Death’ set in a pub of rowdy conversationalists, ‘This Is All I Need’ and ‘Anthea’ is less a celebration of Blue Peter’s Anthea Turner, and more perhaps a defeatist acceptance of society’s knockbacks to the individual: “living from the outside in”. Attacking aimlessly but feeling better for it eventually. The trio’s lyrical use of alcohol-infused chants teaches us that sometimes it’s healthy to stick it to whoever and bond over the never-ending injustices. Previously released single ‘The Ease’ sets up the archaic dialogue for something more stable and somewhat positive in the eyes of Social Haul. The sense of overcoming political and personal hurdles by playing the good old, repressive game in a dissociated state: “I play that quench and destroy, I play that poor me ploy, I drink the ease.” 

The many-layered slices of gritty cake are somewhat finished with a wiser, middle finger up to political authorities with ‘I Have A Pen’. The album is brought down to a ‘poking fun’ level of complaint: “I have a pen but I’ve never had to use it, and I’ve seen God but I don’t think I should prove it to the primitive men”. From the victim to the oppressor, the alt-rock trio confide in and cleverly take the piss through relatable and patriotic prose.

Social Haul is out now via FatCat Records.

More about: Social Haul