The title of Nothing But Thieves’ (NBT) recent third studio album – Moral Panic – suggests that the world is falling apart.
And if you were to take the lyrics of the album to heart you would definitely believe that it is, but then if you turn on the news you can’t blame NBT for thinking that either.
In a turbulent year of global pandemics, Black Lives Matter protests and political firestorms, this album slots in seamlessly.
The Southend band released the first track – Is Everybody Going Crazy? – back at the start of lockdown, at the height of UK bulk buying and the panic released by COVID. The track effortlessly slipped into the new normal that was emerging back then, with lyrics such as, “Is anyone else feeling lonely? It just can’t be me only, losing our cool so slowly.”
NBT have never been afraid of expressing their opinions about politics and religion, but this album turns up the heat into a blazing commentary on a world that so often this year has literally been ablaze.
In the band’s most pointed attack on the state of the world today – the track Can We Afford To Be Individuals? – the lyrics address Donald Trump and his supporters directly:
“You’re so scared of the people up in your fairyland. But how can you hate something you don’t even understand? Oh, you’re a walking contradiction in a MAGA hat, It’s where I wanna be, God bless the land of the free. So who are you to tell us where we do and don’t belong? And who are you to tell us who to love and who to not?”
The song bubbles slowly upwards until that verse above, at which point the emotions boil over and the lead vocalist Connor Masons’ angelic voice degenerates and explodes into a howl of raw anger.
On this album Mason experiments with his voice in new ways, and Phobia – a song that explores his mental health – once again escalates, this time from a whisper to a desperate shout.
The bleak world view of This Feels Like The End includes a section in the middle where the vocals turn into a Muse-inspired monologue about conspiracy and the way we are all the victims of it.
NBT’s characteristic disdain for religion is another thread running through the album, and in Unperson Connors once again experiments with his vocals by ironically ‘preaching’ lyrics to us that include the line, “’Cause I’m another unperson, you created this mess, you are the grand designer, revel in our unrest.”
Nothing But Thieves have historically mixed slow beautiful songs with more rough rock sounds and this album is no different. Before We Drift Away incorporates violin beautifully into an alt-rock sound to inspiring affect, and adds a sweet note to the end of the otherwise bitter album.
But there are a few songs that fall between these two styles, and by doing so fall short. The title track Moral Panic has so much potential, but lacks the muscle to push it towards brilliance. When the song crescendos, it doesn’t quite make it, leaving us with just a keyboard instead of that famous NBT roaring guitar.
The tracks also occasionally experiment with synth sounds reminiscent of the 80s which, depending on personal taste, weaken the rest of the album – for example on the track There Was Sun.
Moral Panic is ultimately a brilliant album. It melds political commentary with melody, in a year when we all feel the world is “going crazy” – and need an album like this to remind us that we are not alone.
