The Guillotines are a ska-punk outfit operating out of Glasgow. With their music clanging across streaming services they’ve developed a fourth full studio album, Parcel Of Rogues.
Starting the album out, “Breakdown” has a wonderful solo section featuring the trumpet and electric guitar dancing between each other, slowly crescendoing to the final utterance of the refrain of the song:
We got the matches/We got the gas
To burn down the world/Leave you on your ass
We got the numbers/To take on your might
We’ll breakdown your walls/Leave you out of sight.
With “Breakdown” at the start of the album you can get an excellent idea of what the rest of the album entails. “Halo and Noose” features the second singer’s far more gravelly, exhortive voice as he describes the small difference between being an angel and feeling a rope around your neck. The theme of the album, a militant distaste and hatred for the modern status quo, capitalism, and the folly of modern fascism and online culture, spills through in every song.
The excellent musicianship of the album shouldn’t be overlooked in favor of fawning over the overtly political messaging. Every song is absurdly well-crafted, with the interplay of each instrument on full display. There are certain points on the album where each artist is allowed to flourish and play in the space, ringing out every moment of bliss they can in their solos.
It is clear yet that I really enjoy this album? I hope so. It’s classic punk mixed with ska sensibilities. It reminds me a lot of The Offspring’s breakthrough album Smash in how the drums and guitar sometimes take a backseat to the cutting vocals, with the entire thing tied together by an anarchopunk thematic throughline.
Something I especially appreciate is the entire sound and vibe of “New Wild West,” a song about how the internet (and more specifically Twitter-dot-com, now X, soon to be several 404 error screens) has caused a majority of the public to completely lose sight of the way their words and actions affect people around them. It’s my favorite off the album, especially the masterful playing of the downtuned acoustic guitar to create a singularly country-western sound to accompany the theming of the song.
It’s a damn good album. The Guillotines know what they’re doing and every song shines. Go buy the fuckin’ thing once it hits their Bandcamp in late August.