Huge indie anthems with a funky to ferocious backdrop and catchy doubled vocals. New Loser recapture the live-music aspect of timeless alternative earworms, with their 12-track LP New Loser.
Firing into gear with the quirky and addictive groove Baggage Control, snappy riffs and smooth, soulful vocals with a twist of indie rasp present a song that feels instantly familiar but fresh. It’s a hook standing tall on a lovable beat, a song that rolls off the tongue once you’ve heard it, and it’s a brilliant introduction to this project. However, you’d be mistaken for thinking that this is the style we can expect from New Loser from here on in, and as soon as Smile & Burn storms into view, that truth is unignorably clear.
Suddenly injecting a heavy metal intensity and a fresh vocal feature, Smile & Burn utilises the same format of short, snappy lines and images, an anthemic resolve, but that’s where the similarities end. We’re not grounded by genre, but we’re embraced by this kind of nostalgic walk down music’s eclectic backstreets, and this continues to ring loudly throughout.
Featuring moments of funk, punk, trip hop, new wave, rock, dance, Latin and even reggae, New Loser resounds as a slick and often lick-driven alternative rock album. We get instrumental gems and smart references, relatable vocals, the likes of Scars presenting warmth and good vibes contrasted by an intriguing subject matter.
Then in stark juxtaposition, Thank You Card For Slaves powers down with a punk-rock intensity and pace that’s akin to the grittier moments found scattered throughout an old-school Tony Hawk game. We move from Sublime to Rage with seamless creativity, and even get a moment of acoustic optimism and world music bounce, for the rather divinely crafted and uplifting Outback Cumbia. All the while, these stories are provocative, fascinating, and naturally beg for you to listen more than once; to start unravelling the details.
There’s no such confinement as genre these days, and New Loser celebrate that fact, but do so with a certain charm and artistry that this, in some ways, feels like a Top of The Pops collection from a simpler era. Some moments feel a little disjointed, but it works for the eclecticism of the set.
Keep This Fire Burning is impossible to pigeonhole stylistically, but it adds further personality to the completed album, and when all is said and done, there’s a simplicity and freedom to the project that’s a genuine pleasure to let play.
Album Out Everywhere October 10th – Pre-save New Loser. Find New Loser on Bandcamp, where three tracks from the album are already available for free. Follow New Loser on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook.
