Review: No Matter – “Bad Chemistry”

Brassneck Records – 01 Jul 2022

No Matter top themselves again with a stellar LP

(full disclaimer – Not only am I a big fan of No Matter, but through my coverage of the band over the years I have become friends with them as well. In Dec 2021 I was asked by the band to listen to this album and provide suggestions on which tracks should be released as singles and/or video, amongst other recommendations.)

Northern Ireland pop-punk quartet No Matter are back with their first LP since 2016’s Ill Advised. At the time that album was released I was an editor and reviewer over at Punknews, and I gave that album a coveted 4.5 star review, as it refreshed my love of, for lack of a better description, Screeching Weasel-style pop-punk. Ill Advised is still one of my favorite albums, but now No Matter may have topped it with their Brassneck Records debut Bad Chemistry.

So, after six years and one intervening EP (2019’s excellent Excess Baggage) what is No Matter bringing to the table besides a great set of songs? Well, the band has upped their game in composition of their songs, both instrumentally as well as their already clever knack of mixing their three vocalists to massive effect. There’s a lot of musicianship (and guitar solos) which are anchored by the always solid rhythm section of Cat Palmer on bass and Jamie Wilson on drums (I must amplify how fun a drummer Jamie is and, no offense to the other members of the band, but without his precise percussion, and in the hands of someone else, these songs would only be half of what they are). No Matter has also enjoyed three talented vocalists who each bring their own unique voice to the band. Dan Kennedy (guitar) gives us the punkier side of things, Jarlath Cowan (guitar) lends the cleaner vocals (TGEFM contributor and American Television guitarist Jerred Lazar, who also spent time in the UK, once said to me that Jarlath “has the voice of an angel”), and the aforementioned Cat gives us a sturdy set of femme vocals. But what’s best about them all isn’t their individual voices (although they are good), but how the band composes backing vocals and harmonies which, in and of itself, could be worthy of a write-up.

Another big part of this album is where they have grown is both in diversity of songs and their editorial choices for track order on the album itself. On that first part, No Matter seems to have spread their wings a bit, presenting a range of songs that run that gamut from bouncy, fun low-tempo tracks like “Gravity” to near-melodic punk bangers such as the pre-release single “Shitegeist”. There are a surprising amount of mid-tempo tracks, but not too many. Throughout them all a fan of the band will hear the improvement in performance buoyed by better production values. Sonically, if Ill Advised was their Dude Ranch, then Bad Chemistry is their Enema of the State in terms of how much better it sounds.

For that latter part, the tracks as presented work cohesively to make the album more than the “sum of its parts”, if you will. Aside from blending songs of different temp to good effect, we also have tracks that work off each other. Catchy tune “Otherside” spends its last third as an instrumental outro that leads directly into “The Machine Stops”, a song that builds itself up into a song chock full of power, energy, and defiance.

One big difference and part of the band’s evolution, one might say improvement(?) if that’s possible, is that the faster tempo songs on this have really leaned hard into the more melodic punk side of things. The aforementioned “Shitegeist”, “Fine Print”, and the penultimate “Unsaid” wouldn’t sound out of place on Lagwagon or any other EpiFat release from the mid-90s. “Crowd Pleaser” is a super-fast, aggressive punk number that is sure to get a pit going.

Album closer “Like A Masochist” goes miles into putting No Matter far and above expectations, showing a moody, emo-punk side. With lyrics such as “And now the cold dead eyes that you despise / are the aftermath of too many tries / and there’s a fire where you used to go and cry / until the bloodstains dried“, even Matt Skiba would smack himself in the forehead in ask “why didn’t I write that?!?”

Overall, Bad Chemistry is nothing less than the exciting product of a band who, inexplicably, keeps getting better despite how insurmountable each previous album is. Like their much more UK melodic punk peers On A Hiding To Nothing, this is a band who has been flying under for far too long. Do yourself a favor and give it a go and, soon enough, you’ll agreeing that there is a lot to this No Matter.