‘They look like my old friends, They do a lot of talking, I don’t know how to start a conversation, All of your new friends, Think I’m kind of boring’ (Life Ghouls)

Once you’ve been around for a while, the scales steadily drop from your eyes.  The economic system is rigged to enrich the powerful.  Doing the right thing remains the right thing to do, but don’t expect it to improve the world’s trajectory.  Now, this can produce a sense of existential gloom.  But it can also provoke the realisation that if you’re going down, it is much better to do so on your own terms than theirs.

It is the latter sentiment that undoubtedly fuels, Sofft Power, the debut album from Nottingham’s Sofftness.  It is the sound of a band comfortable with being true to themselves and with little concern for fad or fashion.  Boldness and conviction permeate each element as the wry, forcefully deadpan vocals and tautly melodic guitars are grounded by the chunky bass lines and crisply resolute percussion.  It is fuelled by an instinctual energy that simmers throughout, from the rousing dual vocals of Night Moves to the melancholy shrouded Life Ghouls and the brooding exhortations of the climatic title track.

It is a blend that provokes thoughts of the propulsive early 1990s’ post-hardcore of Tacoma’s Seaweed if it had been rinsed through with an unapologetic English post-punk aesthetic and just a frisson of 1980s’ new wave pop sheen.  Evidence, were it needed, that disillusionment need not mean defeat, but rather can provide the inspiration to break free from simply ‘going through the motions.’