Few bands kicked as much ass as the brilliance of Mclusky. They still rank as one of the most underappreciated rock bands in recent memory, with aggressively catchy indie rock songs that were quirky, pissed off and simply awesome. It has been a couple of years since the band broke up, and out of its ashes comes a storm of balls to the wall madness under the name Future Of The Left.
The band is comprised of Andy Falkous (guitar/vocals) and Jack Egglestone (drums) from Mclusky, as well as Kelson Louis Tregurtha Mathias from Jarcrew on drums. So we’ve got two-thirds of Mclusky, which is more than enough to make some music that is similar yet not a copy of their former self. Falkous, one of the most distinctive voices in rock, has kept it a bit more straightforward than his previous works, yet the oddness that made albums such as Mclusky Do Dallas so great is definitely still intact.
“The Lord Hates A Coward” gets things started with a big, ugly bowlful of rock & roll stew. This is a well-tuned machine, with screams and blasts of guitar precisely executed. While FOTL does follow more of a traditional song structure than we’re used to from Falkous, it works very well. When we skip down to “Manchasm,” a new sound pops out that many might not be used to from the band’s previous incarnation: keyboards! The song’s jabs at inattentive audiences during the chorus shows that our beloved frontman’s off sense of humor is still alive and well.
“Small Bones Small Bodies” and “Wrigley Scott” both look back to Mclusky’s finer moments as short, punchy, slightly fucked up punky rock songs. The latter is by far a favorite off Curses, with its odd chorus of “s-s-s-sausage on a stick!” Bouncing between screams and falsetto, this is the Falkous that we know and love. With this first full-length offering from Future Of The Left, I am quite excited to see what else they have in store for us (hopefully) in the coming years. Lets just hope that this time round, once they really hit their stride they are able to keep the band intact.
Curses is mean, lean and chock full of meaty awesomeness, proving that interesting rock music lives on.
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