Labels: Boss Tuneage
Review by: Andy Malcolm
What’s left to say about the Shitty Limits? Roundly lauded as the “UK’s most exciting punk rock band. Since Gallows!” (OK, I made that last bit up), my miserable conclusion that this record is merely ok is not going to concern anyone.
The Limits are clearly a thrilling proposition for many, belting out their back to basics, “birth of hardcore punk” style music, with rather unsettling bellowing over the top. From Minor Threat and Black Flag to all sorts of bands that
were imbibed with the punk spirit before anyone ever decided that such a thing existed, the Limits know their own limits and are content to pump out twelve songs of wild eyed brashness. And that’s where it falls down, for a band that has
garnered such rabid enthusiasm (this site included), I’m just not seeing where the hook is here. It feels lumpen, the songs are so resolutely mid-paced and plodding that the pleasingly unhinged vocals are incredibly prominent, whilst the
rest of the band is content to plug away in a pretty safe fashion. It is telling that the one moment that it really breaks out of the rut is on the demolition job that is “Show Me”, a real ball of energy and sweat.
I am sure in a live environment that these songs work better, so long as they are spitting, kicking the audience and generally spilling blood be it their own or
otherwise. Yet reduced to a mere digital stream coming out of my cd player, I’m unable to buy into it – it’s a reasonable record of retro punk that is in desperate need of a little more spark. The rather simple production doesn’t benefit it either, it hasn’t made things feel more rough and raw, it hasn’t beefed it up, it’s just enabled it to sound like the bands they are most influenced by. And that’s probably where I am falling down, my record collection is pretty devoid of such bands as it’s a subset of punk rock that has never caught my ear, for whatever reason.
So this washes through me rather standardly, take or leave, is my final, wishy-washy impression.