Tape It Shut are a Reading Uk based band that play English punk rock with an American flavour, and this the bands first full length album does all this and more. This is 16 tracks of bloody minded frustration busting music that will have you reaching for the anger management book, just so you can rip it up and feel good for it. What’s apparent from the opener ‘Com-Munity’ is just how close to another up coming band in Pet Needs these songs are, lyrically masterful and to the point, they have the anger but it’s controlled and channelled right to the heart of every song. The need to want something done before it happens, and the fight to get just a safe place to live in is laid out simply and perfectly on ‘Deathtraps Waiting To Happen’.

I think that when you get the NOFX style of music and add this to a very British way of putting things, then you’re on a winner every time. Take ‘See Yourself In Five’, an ode to the rat race work until you die life, or ‘Normalisation II’, which simply asks for a love of humanity and indicates that the only killing that should be done is that of racism and bigotry, these are as most of this album and what Tape It Shut are about. These are songs that don’t have that catchy ear worm chorus, no banging riffs, just to the point poetic lyrics framed with music that sets the scene.

If you’re looking for a punk rock album that’s gonna have you singing alone at only the second listen, and album that’s full of bangers and songs that’ll have you dancing in the isles, well this isn’t for you. This is a grower in the sense that the songs have so much depth of sound and words they feel like mini stories, moments snatched from the world around us. Whether it be ‘Take On Please’ that slams hard with those chugging guitars and punishing drums, but spits some sublime lines of word magic at ya, or the title track with its power chords and machine gun beat, that also dives neck deep into political no mans land, a place of lost souls (oh and there is one of those slick guitar licks in here). Spoiler alert! The final track ‘Sleep In The Ashes’ is the stand out of all, but don’t jump to it, you need to do the whole album first to get it, right.

This is an album full of “fucking with your head” lyrics, in good ways and bad ways, but all in equal measure, but it’s also an explosion in a munitions factory of punk rock. If you’re a Pet Needs fan you’ll love this too. Suspicious Package is out now via Cat’s Claw Records (UK) and Punk Rock Radar (US) and you can find Tape It Shut on Facebook and Bandcamp.

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