Lockjaw Records – 25 May 2021
The second full length from UK punks Misgivings chock full of working class anthems.
I came across a few preview songs of Misgivings‘ Dream Neighbor on Bandcamp earlier this month and added it to my wish list to fully check it out when it dropped this week. But once I found out that TGEFM had access to a promo copy, I jumped at the chance to review the full record in advance, and it did not disappoint.
Misgivings are a new-to-me band and are based in Portsmouth, UK. After putting out a demo in 2013, (along with a couple other releases later on), they released their debut LP, Hermitage, in 2018. This is their follow up, and while I've only given the rest of their catalogue a cursory listen, I don't think there's been a sophomore slump.
If you think that a band named for a term that means “a feeling of doubt or apprehension about the outcome or consequences of something” might write melancholy songs filled with regret, well… yeah, you wouldn't be too far off. But these aren't wallow-in-self-pity songs, these are more like yeah-this-sucks-but-we've-still-got-to-make-it-through-this-week kind of tunes. Working class anthems, I guess you might say, with plenty of fuzzy guitars and vocal harmonies.
I haven't spoken with the band or seen them say anything like this anywhere, and so this is just my interpretation, but this record seems to have a bit of a “day in the life” vibe. While there are obviously pointed, specific grievances that any person releasing music during 2021 would have, Misgivings are pretty grounded in day-to-day disappointments and frustrations.
The album opener “Owe Yourself” starts off saying “You had to owe yourself again / A one way ticket out of bed,” before getting to the refrain “I'll have to owe myself again / I keep my balance in the red / I pay me a visit now and then / I'll pay me back until I'm dead.”
It's followed up by “Loyal Souls”, a bouncy sing-along that is reminiscent of American Slang-era Gaslight Anthem, with an appropriate amount of indie-punk nostalgia, before getting to “You Don't Depend On Anyone”. At first listen, I thought it was a recommendation, but after a closer look at the lyrics, it's about a friend that would rather do things on their own and won't accept help. A likely relatable feeling during pandemic times.
Deeper into the album, “Look The Part” and “Token Gesture” sound like they could be covers of unknown Replacements b-sides (I'm likely showing my lack of UK band knowledge here, maybe a better reference would be Broccoli?). We hear “Way Too Loud”, which is probably the song with the hardest edge of the batch, and I've definitely sung “I'm not half the man I hoped I'd be by now” pretty loudly in the car by myself. The album closes with “An Optimistic Dream.” See?!? The record opens up with getting out of bed, and ends with dreaming? Ok, maybe it's a bit of a stretch…
While they are sonically very different, I get a similar feeling listening to Dream Neighbor that I did when I first listened to Apathy and Exhaustion by The Lawrence Arms. It might have to do with where I was/am at in my life – when I first heard A&E, I was enduring my second gloomy winter in a college in small time Idaho and wanted to get out of there as soon as possible, but knew I still had a few years left. Now, I'm grinding down to the last week of teaching school during a pandemic, and it's been a long, strange year, to say the least.
In both instances, I am/was a bit ready to just be done, but know that the best way out is to go through it, as difficult to motivate myself as it might be. Misgivings seem to get that, and realize that going to extremes (painting a rosy picture or just completely giving up) aren't viable options. They're able to be pissed off without sounding like it, which isn't an easy thing to do. A solid record start to finish that stays on point throughout – if you like the first track, you won't skip any of them.