Lose Yourself In Talk Show's Aggressive New Single ‘Underworld'

London band Talk Show are back with ‘Underworld’, the very first preview of their forthcoming EP ‘Touch The Ground’, due to arrive next year. Its sense of immediacy quickly becomes apparent as a loud, fizzing intro evokes a revving motorbike and provides a steady rhythm, against which a distinctive club beat makes its presence known.

This is a song which would be as much at home around a dancefloor as a mosh pit, and that’s hardly surprising, given the involvement of Hot Chip members Joe Goddard and Al Doyle as producers. 

Like all good dance offerings, it surges onward throughout its three minutes and fifty-eight seconds. Passing like something of a whirlwind, it refuses to reduce its relentless pace, even for a moment – so if you were a reveller on a night out, there wouldn’t be much time for your euphoria to die down.

This effect is achieved through a series of constants. In addition to the beat, punctuated by bursts of electric guitar, there are the lyrics themselves. Not only are they earworms, but they also help to give the song a distinctively ominous air, like you really are enveloped by some kind of underworld – and by extension, an attitude too. 

Lead singer Harrison Swann charges through with a clear rock and roll swagger, conveying a determination to be defiant and carve his own path untroubled by others; “You sold your soul but you don’t need mine/I sing the songs/You say the rhymes”. These lines are followed by the infectious “Underworld/under sound/lately I feel it out”, arguably the closest thing ‘Underworld’ has to a chorus, such is its relative monotony.

It’s not so much sung as sneered in an unapologetically punky manner, and it is surely this direct approach that makes it a success and brings it to life. As it draws gradually to a close, we encounter something that seems to sum its energy up perfectly; the words “a taste for life”, repeated over and over, almost until they fade out. This gives the impression that Talk Show have packed all of their vitality into a single song, wasting no time in getting down to business. It bursts free for as long as possible, right up until that revving intro resurfaces to wind it down and out, and you can finally catch your breath.

How could you resist that kind of fire in the belly?

 

Mason Hawker

@HawkerMason

Image: Talk Show, ‘Underworld’ Official Single Cover (PRESS)