London’s More Kicks have just released their anthemic second album, 'Punch Drunk', their first release on Milwaukee'sDirtnap Records and Rotterdam’sStardumb Records.
'Punch Drunk' marks a new era for the band, lashing out with a heavier, more expansive sound, and with more twists and turns than ever before. It veers from sparkling harmonies to fearsome riffing in the blink of an eye, with never a second wasted. As with their first record, it was recorded live on to 2” tape.
Listeners will hear influences from classic 60s garage, 70s NYC rock and roll, and jagged 90s guitar pop, all wrapped in a razor sharp bundle. Singer/guitarist James 'Sulli' Sullivan explained, “'Punch Drunk' is exactly how I felt when I was writing this album. Knocked around and woozy. It’s an awful cliche to claim that music saved your life but it’s a cliche for a reason and putting this thing together was a total lifeline in a horrible moment. Personal and global upheaval”.
He continued, “I just listened to the full album the other day for the first time in months,” Sulli adds, “and it kind of surprised me how muscular it sounds. It sounds angry, desperate, discombobulated, in love with melody, in love with guitars and bass and drums, in love with playing music with friends despite – or perhaps because of – what was happening in the outside world. It sounds like resilience. It sounds punch drunk”.
At it's core, 'More Kicks' is an explosion of pop melodies, jet-fuelled guitar riffs and shifting, sinewy rhythms with James Sullivan (Sulli) on lead vocals and guitar, Kris Hood on drums, and Paolo Mantovani on bass/vox.
The band arrived from nowhere at the end of 2017 on London’s garage scene. Their self-titled debut album was released in November 2019 on a coalition of five independent labels, a concise and ragged lesson in pop songwriting dripping in melody, cynicism and energy.
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