Ireland’s Naked Lungs turned some heads last year with their self-titled EP, which took influence from post punk, shoegaze, and noise rock and turned it into something loud and catchy at the same time. The country’s had a knack for spawning colder, dreary post punk and shoegaze over the decades, but on their debut full length Doomscroll Naked Lungs has taken the foundation from their EP and chosen to go in a more hostile and experimental direction. Coming in with a much darker and dense sound alongside songs that often move from minimalism into booming walls of noise, Doomscroll can be jarring but still has hooks beneath its more freeform approach. It doesn’t always stick the landing, but Naked Lungs’ ability to push outside of the usual stylistic boxes helps them to stand out.
You’d expect that any band that takes influence from 90s AmRep noise rock and the like would be pretty abrasive and have some jagged edges to their riffing, but Naked Lungs has leaned into this aspect hard on their debut. Opener “Gack” is a great example, as after that first few seconds of feedback it explodes into bursts of noisy feedback and a rhythmic cadence that can best be described as a lurch. Compared to the EP the sound here is denser and a bit eerier, keeping you on edge as you anticipate the softer, brooding moments are going to explode into a wall of feedback and noisier riffing. It’s not quite as structured compared to some noise rock or post punk, with the way songs ebb and flow giving off more of a no-wave feel. Sometimes this comes through like The Jesus Lizard meets Arab on Radar, but other tracks find Naked Lungs pushing off in a direction of their own. When they nail it, this is some of the most haunting and tense material I’ve heard this year, as “Second Song” and “Shell” strip things down to almost complete silence and then hit the listener right in the face with harsher riffs. The latter even has some early Swans industrial vibes with its more deliberate rhythms. Admittedly a few of the tracks fall into this minimalist/maximalist pattern where you know that once the band gets quiet they’ll immediately come back twice as loud, but even if you can predict it the impact is effective. I do also appreciate some of the additional nuances that make their way into Doomscroll, whether it’s some warmer shoegaze textures or the psych rock freakout on “Database”. The final two tracks pivot away from some of this hostility in favor of something completely different, and this is where Naked Lungs stumbles slightly. “The Garden” is much softer and has a more 90s alternative rock melody to it, while “Boo Boo” goes for a drearier and expansive melody that still has that 90s crunch to it. These are hardly bad songs and I applaud the band’s attempt to inject variety, but it almost sounds like a completely different group and clashes with the tone a bit.
The instrumentals may offer plenty of tense moments, but it’s the vocal work of Tom Brady that set things over the edge. Sometimes Brady has a dry delivery that’s closer to spoken word, giving particular focus to the lyrics as they explore some of the darker sides of the human condition. But other moments whip things up into shrieks and much more abrasive pitches, giving off a much more chaotic and hostile feel. As mentioned earlier, there are moments where Naked Lungs reduces things to almost complete silence, and when this happens Brady’s ominous singing/spoken word is the only element left coming out of your speakers. It’s effective in pulling the listener in from one song to the next, and when combined with the lyrics there are quite a few standout moments on Doomscroll. “The Garden” switches over to a more alternative rock or melodic punk style of singing and it does get a little rough at some points, but this doesn’t fully derail the experience.
A year after their self-titled EP, Naked Lungs has gotten noisier and darker in their approach, channeling just as much no-wave as noise rock or post punk. The way they pull it all together comes across as a bit more unique than some of the other bands out there, and while the experiments at the end clash a bit too much with the rest of the album there is still a lot to like about what the band is doing. If you enjoy the more abrasive side of these genres and want material that will keep you on the edge of your seat, Doomscroll is worth giving a listen.
-Review by Chris Dahlberg