The Smith Street Band - Don't Fuck With Our Dreams
As a Perth native it’s hard to admit that Melbourne lads, The Smith Street Band, are heir apparent to the Australian punk rock scene, if not kings already. Their brand of scream your heart out rock has already turned heads with their sophomore LP, Sunshine and Technology but it is their latest EP Don’t Fuck With Our Dreams which really brings the fucking noise.
5 tracks and a whole lotta heart, the Melbourne foresome cover all the bases from their back catalogue, quiet intros building into sing along chorus’, full on screams and poetic justice.
The titular EP opener is no doubt their strongest song to date, weaving between roaring chorus and sincere verses. Wil Wagner’s voice and the chords over them are almost perfect while he is discussing sombre topics such as depression and suicide from a personal stand point. Weaving between youth anthem “Every nights a Saturday night and every day’s a Monday morning” and introspect “why has my way of coping become a reason to spill blood?” which isreflected not only lyrically, but also in the mood of the song.
Frontman Wil Wagner belting out some soul
"Don't Fuck With Our Dreams" blends nicely into "Ducks Fly Together", again lyrically and musically, however in this case the song is a lot more upbeat with a narrative of love gained and lost and hopefully gained again. It’s a bittersweet song, “I’ll miss you but, it feels good, this way lets fall in love somewhere we’ll wanna stay”. Again, another very strong The Smith Street Band song, sincere and loud, with a little wit in there for good measure.
Don’t Fuck With Our Dreams ends fittingly with a quitter song, again very insightful to the writer’s thoughts and therefore it connects well at an emotional level. Dealing again with issues of youth and growing up, Self Control features a quiet chorus, very different to the usual chrowd enticing sing-alongs. But it works really well, the feeling of the song is very nostalgic and is held together by some terrific skinsmanship, delving into a kind-of-tribal feel.
The band have summed the EP up perfectly on their liner notes, “Don't Fuck With Our Dreams is about love, respect, beautiful responses to awful things and taking care of one another”. I will make comparisons to The Gaslight Anthem, trade all of the Americana for Australian themes, as well as transposing the Jersey drawl to a strong Aussie accent. The wide dynamics The Smith Street Band have put down here can hopefully be seen as a sign for greater things to come.
8.5/10
Don't Fuck With Our Dreams is out now on Poison City Records., and their music can be heard here.
