Fatcat Records

Lawns’ debut long-player, Be A Better Man, was taped at Berlin’s Impressions Recordings, and mixed by Richard Behrens at Big Snuff Studio. Behrens’ previous production credits include a long list of serious German metal / psyche / stoner acts, such as Kadaver and Elder. According to Lawns drummer Tobias Humble, “We were keen to keep the raw chaos of our live shows, and a touch of DIY. Because we have a great dynamic in the studio we were able to be brash and energetic while laying down the takes. The recording really is like a live show, but with a bit less sweat and claustrophobia!” Guitarist / vocalist Joe Green says, “We worked out how to make our heavy bits heavier, our weird bits weirder, and our pretty bits prettier, and we’re really pleased with the results.”

The album opens with the tight, taut, I Remember, whose spoken poetry describes everyday banality and borderline insanity over a breakneck rhythm. Misinterpretations, similarly, is a racing, rushing, riot of razor-sharp riffing. Previous single, Bottled Up, portrays a pressure cooker of disappointment and frustration fit to explode. Lawns have described themselves as ’anti-groove on purpose’, but that’s not strictly true. Here, amidst the repetitive rocking and head-banging shredding, they knock out a rigid funk. Best, lyrically, is concerned with a conceived need to conform to the norm. To keep up appearances, as facades begin to crack. After a hushed, whispered intro, the song’s 6-strings start screaming in protest to society’s polite expectations. Surf takes its title, perhaps, from its terrific, turned-up-to-11 twanging. It could also refer to the waves of fear and shame that the vocals are wrestling with. While powerful, and subversive, the piece is also poppy, catchy even, in the same way as, say, The Buzzcocks were. Announcing that “The floodgates are open” and that “It’s been too long”, the epic 16 could be interpreted as an ode to teenage angst. However this anthem to want is left ambiguous, leaving the listener to ascribe / project their own personal desire. It’s never made clear if the protagonist longs for love or is simply lost in lust. Selected as a second single, The Worrier is a pummelling, pounding paean to paranoia, and the absolute shit, which unchecked, fills our heads. From unpaid bills to imagined physical ills. Fuelled by mainstream and social media. Something like a sonic taser shock it’s the soundtrack to a potential nervous breakdown. Like the rest of the album it expresses, externalises an internal darkness, in a ritual of frenzied release. Its arrangement is like a series of seizures. Eggshells talks about treading on them, and “walking a tightrope”, while navigating a tricky relationship. Its “keeping the peace” means keeping secrets, and is likened to being “stuck in a prison”, confirming it to be a cut caught in a toxic togetherness, cornered by compromise. Riding a barrage of machine-like drums, the song’s angular, angsty axe work is prone to eruptions of violent trash. A chorus of “Be a better man”, scorched by self-loathing, accompanies these outbursts, giving the album its title. It ends in a freakout that was apparently inspired by Fairport Convention, but sounds more like a tribute to Funkadelic. You is a wild short of Pete Townsend-esque windmilling shards. The closing Friends finds Lawns testing trusted relationships to their limits, frantic until its beatless plucked and picked, final fade.