Rocker (feedbot)
Gold Member
Brighton duo Regal Cheer have made quite a name for themselves in the local post-pandemic punk scene. Two EPs, an LP, shows played the length and breadth of the country, all powered by a frantic, short attention span punk that ditches the genre’s various hangups to deliver something raw and pure. Now, with the release of their sophomore album, ‘Quite Good’, Regal Cheer are setting the bar for DIY punk.
“I don’t trust that you really cared at all,” yells drummer Harry Menear over the sounds of feedback before the music kicks in on album opener ‘Cold Case’. A tom-led punk rhythm drives through the song, guitars floating above during the verse – floating even when they join the drums in the chorus. It’s an element of discordance that will be played on time and time again.
The key to a really good two-piece band, regardless of genre or instruments, is communication. The best two-pieces are constantly in a musical conversation with one another. Regal Cheer understand this, and have it baked into their music. It’s apt then that ‘Quite Good’ is an album about the breakdown of communication, the ending of friendships, life’s constant shifting. Nowhere is this more perfectly embodied than in lead single, ‘All The Best’. It’s the album at its most furious, minor keys and shouted vocals and a tense, unrelenting drumbeat. Despite that, the message is fundamentally hopeful. A thematic contradiction, echoed in the music – guitar and drums almost at odds with each other in the verses before they come together in the choruses. Communication broken down and rebuilt. A conversation.
This discord is felt across the several singles released ahead of ‘Quite Good’. It’s structural in ‘Crumbs’, another song about the crumbling apart of a relationship. Verse, chorus and bridge break down and lose their meaning here, shifting from classic Regal fast-paced punk to anthemic half time over the course of a scant two minutes. “Call it what it is, it’s a waste of time,” Menear and guitarist Max Cleworth yell together, while doing anything but wasting time.
Or in ‘Slalom Gates’, slightly slower than most of the album and certainly longer – clocking in at a whopping 2:16 – a thematic breakdown of attention mirrored once again in the music. “The attention span’s gone,” sings Cleworth, cutting the final line of the first verse in half and leading to a wordless chorus. Almost as if the band had simply forgotten to sing. At its quietest, just ahead of ‘Slalom Gates’, comes ‘Queue’ featuring Soot Sprite. A duet, nothing but guitars and vocals, each conversing with one another. Slide guitar speaks in response to strummed chords, male and female vocals in soft harmony. It’s dreamy, haunting, and stands out all the more because it seems to come out of nowhere. Perhaps that’s because it fits perfectly within an album that is so deeply conversational, so deliberately about taking time to figure things out and move on: “The queue is the best place to get off the ride”.
These feelings come home to roost in the album’s closer, ‘Cyclical’, a song struggling with Nietzsche’s Great Recurrence, filled with repetition and the anxiety of living. “A continuous loop that’s never ending,” sings Menear, before questioning: “How long have we all got left? How long until it all resets?” There is no answer here, beyond the final refrain shouted by Cleworth and Menear, in one final agreement: “Nothing stays the same”.
‘Quite Good’ is impressive in how much is achieved with so little. Regal Cheer are delivering stripped back punk in the same vein that PUP opened so successfully over a decade ago. Given its sparse instrumentation, Regal Cheer have chosen minimalist depth rather than a broad, expansive soundscape. There’s no fat to trim here. Every song has its place on the record, and the music is set to work on the themes of communication, conversation, and postmodern anxiety just as much as the vocals. It’s their best recorded work to date, perfectly capturing their infectious live energy and showing that when all artifice is stripped away, what’s left behind is heart.
WILL BRIGHT
“I don’t trust that you really cared at all,” yells drummer Harry Menear over the sounds of feedback before the music kicks in on album opener ‘Cold Case’. A tom-led punk rhythm drives through the song, guitars floating above during the verse – floating even when they join the drums in the chorus. It’s an element of discordance that will be played on time and time again.
The key to a really good two-piece band, regardless of genre or instruments, is communication. The best two-pieces are constantly in a musical conversation with one another. Regal Cheer understand this, and have it baked into their music. It’s apt then that ‘Quite Good’ is an album about the breakdown of communication, the ending of friendships, life’s constant shifting. Nowhere is this more perfectly embodied than in lead single, ‘All The Best’. It’s the album at its most furious, minor keys and shouted vocals and a tense, unrelenting drumbeat. Despite that, the message is fundamentally hopeful. A thematic contradiction, echoed in the music – guitar and drums almost at odds with each other in the verses before they come together in the choruses. Communication broken down and rebuilt. A conversation.
This discord is felt across the several singles released ahead of ‘Quite Good’. It’s structural in ‘Crumbs’, another song about the crumbling apart of a relationship. Verse, chorus and bridge break down and lose their meaning here, shifting from classic Regal fast-paced punk to anthemic half time over the course of a scant two minutes. “Call it what it is, it’s a waste of time,” Menear and guitarist Max Cleworth yell together, while doing anything but wasting time.
Or in ‘Slalom Gates’, slightly slower than most of the album and certainly longer – clocking in at a whopping 2:16 – a thematic breakdown of attention mirrored once again in the music. “The attention span’s gone,” sings Cleworth, cutting the final line of the first verse in half and leading to a wordless chorus. Almost as if the band had simply forgotten to sing. At its quietest, just ahead of ‘Slalom Gates’, comes ‘Queue’ featuring Soot Sprite. A duet, nothing but guitars and vocals, each conversing with one another. Slide guitar speaks in response to strummed chords, male and female vocals in soft harmony. It’s dreamy, haunting, and stands out all the more because it seems to come out of nowhere. Perhaps that’s because it fits perfectly within an album that is so deeply conversational, so deliberately about taking time to figure things out and move on: “The queue is the best place to get off the ride”.
These feelings come home to roost in the album’s closer, ‘Cyclical’, a song struggling with Nietzsche’s Great Recurrence, filled with repetition and the anxiety of living. “A continuous loop that’s never ending,” sings Menear, before questioning: “How long have we all got left? How long until it all resets?” There is no answer here, beyond the final refrain shouted by Cleworth and Menear, in one final agreement: “Nothing stays the same”.
‘Quite Good’ is impressive in how much is achieved with so little. Regal Cheer are delivering stripped back punk in the same vein that PUP opened so successfully over a decade ago. Given its sparse instrumentation, Regal Cheer have chosen minimalist depth rather than a broad, expansive soundscape. There’s no fat to trim here. Every song has its place on the record, and the music is set to work on the themes of communication, conversation, and postmodern anxiety just as much as the vocals. It’s their best recorded work to date, perfectly capturing their infectious live energy and showing that when all artifice is stripped away, what’s left behind is heart.
WILL BRIGHT