Frank Carter & the rattlesnakes 4th album “Sticky” launches this Friday
Frank Carter and Dean Richardson have made the most of the Covid lockdown, and grabbed whatever time they could together to create their fourth studio album “Sticky” and have ended up with something far gnarlier than ever before. Channelling all their frustrations and the grittiness of the city into 10 eviscerating tracks. But this isn’t a so often told tale of lockdown musing….. as Frank said clearly “It’s not a lockdown record….. it’s a freedom record.”
“Sticky” clearly marks the next phase for the Rattlesnakes and was produced, for the first time, by Richardson, and it solidifies the pair as one of the most exciting partnerships in punk-rock and Carter – since his early days in hardcore punk band Gallows and then as Pure Love – as a vital voice in UK music, rallying against injustice, the patriarchy, right-wing politics and toxic masculinity. The duo have built a reputation of blistering hardcore tracks about sex, rage and letting rip. They’re the very definition of a modern rock band, both artists as well as musicians – Richardson with his design studio Yuck and Carter, a well-known tattoo artist. But on Sticky, their sound practically punches out of the speakers with a new directness and immediacy.
The new album includes collaborations with some true British originals, including appearances from Primal Scream’s Bobby Gillespie, IDLES’ enigmatic frontman Joe Talbot and singer Cassyette. There’s a clear connection between these characters and The Rattlesnakes: “It’s all underdogs,” says Carter, and “outsiders,” echoes Richardson. Together, they sound like a gnarly mob racing around a metropolis at night, or perhaps the Sunset Strip in 1989 – there’s a hefty dose of glam and sleaze on tracks like ‘Off With His Head’, with Cassyette, a Bonnie Tyler for Gen Z to Carter’s Axl Rose or James Hetfield.
Carter is particularly outspoken about mental health and how it’s changed his perspective on masculinity – he is sticky just as much as he is unashamed to come unstuck. He is open on social media about his struggles and how he’s taken his anger out on himself during shows, coming back bloodied – even one time, he remembers, in a wheelchair. “There was a lot of self abuse and self loathing in my early bands,” he admits. “I know now that a lot of that was just misdirected energy. I was frustrated about societal constructs of being a man when I didn't really feel like one. So I’ve been able to manage that a lot better now.”
There was a time, both Rattlesnakes say, where they felt they had to be tough to be successful in rock music. “This is armour, all this stuff,” says Carter, pointing to his tattoos (there are more of them than bare skin at this point). “I’m a 5ft7 redhead. I'm the epitome of trying to present a tough guy image just to be left alone. I guess because that's what society told me I needed to be. I’m equal parts feminine as I am masculine, and I find a lot of strength in vulnerability. I try to show it everywhere I can, and talk about it, to break down those barriers, so that more men feel like it's the right thing to do.”
Richardson agrees. “I grew up thinking men had to be a certain way, and I was confused,” he says. “I didn’t feel super masculine in a stereotypical way. But I don't really think many men really do.”.
The Rattlesnakes are redefining punk-rock, challenging its tired cliches, and setting the world to rights. With Gallows, Carter was taking aim at the country’s social, political and economical issues, but now with Richardson, on Sticky, he’s struck upon a sound that straddles eras and genres while putting The Rattlesnakes in a category all of their own.
“Someone described it to me as ‘they felt their youth’ when they were listening to the record,” says Carter. “When you make albums, those are the ones you want to make. Nostalgic, but classic. Timeless, and also modern.” Well…… let’s see eh ?!
Credit: Jenny Brough
I’ve been looking forward to this new album for some time, since I first heard My Town back in April. Frank Carter has an impressive career behind him already, previously fronting Gallows and with some outstanding tracks with the Rattlesnakes to his arsenal, such as ‘Lullaby’ ‘Crowbar’ ‘Juggernaut’ ‘Crowbar’ and their excellent cover of ‘Nothing Breaks like a Heart’ to name but a few. I love how culturally they pop up in conversation so frequently. I recently shot a gig in Derby and both support bands did Frank Carter covers; Floodhounds (Lullaby) and Even Odds (Nothing Breaks like a Heart) and referenced what an influence the Rattlesnakes were.
The album starts with the second single and title track Sticky. It’s loud and sets the tone for what’s about to hit our ears so perfectly. Sticky is a snarling call to arms, late night roaming the city streets, looking for excitement whether that’s getting sticky with someone, or craving the mess that is a good mosh pit. “I think ‘pent up’ is a good way of describing everyone’s energy for the past year,” he says. It’s about running around and causing trouble, and enjoying life to the max !
Cupid’s Arrow hits us next with its crisp clear guitar riffs and fast paced pounding bass track. A song about all embracing love “Cupid’s arrow makes it harder to breathe” and the effect when a bad boy and a bad girl meet, each looking for a partner in crime, and how it can spiral and become self-destructive. Love can be intense and tragic at the same time and Frank’s lyrical strength is in his descriptive powers with lines such as “If my heart is yours to keep, why do you drag it through the street?” and “There, I lost my dream, on the corner of your street”.
Next up we have a right powerhouse, and one that is certain to be a huge hit at live shows….Bang Bang, which has a wonderful and undeniable irreverence. Featuring Lynks, just the song title conjures up visions of what it’s like. Works done for the week, it’s payday and the weekend is here and it’s time to party, and the consequences, describing the experience brilliantly like a trip down the rabbit hole. Loud wild sections, interspersed with a quitter middle section. I can just see a crowd bouncing in unison to this one chanting out the simplistic, but oh so effective chorus of “Bang Bang”.
We dive headlong into Take It To The Brink with it’s frantic description of alcohol and how we use it, whether it’s a functioning alcoholic who uses booze to drown out their problems, or if you use it to deal with difficult social situations and anxiety…… With lyrics such as “You don’t know how to cope but somehow you keep pushing through, your mind is dark let me light it up for you” and “what does it mean if your life is a dream and one day it turns into a nightmare”
The first single released from the album back in April was the fantastic My Town featuring Joe Talbot, front man of Bristolian punk band IDLES. Carter described the track as being “a bruising metaphor for our collective mental health falling apart…” Imagining every person as a town and its residents, the town representing the mental stability and wellbeing of that person”. For me, when I first heard the track, it struck me deeply not just as that, but as a brilliant metaphor for the way the world has changed in recent years…. Every town is the same, the changing political landscape, and the huge impact social media has had. Everyone has a voice and it’s not always a good thing…. “And no one gives a fuck at all…” The lyrics are hard hitting:
“You let your dog shit on the street,
You kick the roses with your feet
You punch each other in the teeth,
You drink until you all fall down
You piss all over sacred ground
You hate yourself…. And you hate me”
But it hints at the pain behind the faces and the anger / voices, the pain and fear that is deep inside. Fast, brash and with the snarling lyrical edge given to it by Joe, it’s a belter of a track.
As a talented tattoo artist himself is it any wonder we have a track like Go Get A Tattoo (again featuring Lynks), which is the 3rd single off Sticky and one of my favourite tracks. Frank was opening a new shop (Rose of Mercy - named after his young daughter Mercy) just as the lockdown hit and he had to close having signed the lease, before a customer could cross the doorstep. The track is another irreverent one, and follows the theme set out earlier in Sticky and Bang Bang, it paints the picture of being outside the club at 2am and looking for excitement. The line “Are you sure, you don’t look sure and we’ve been in this mess before” made me laugh out loud when I first heard it, with it’s suggestion of bad decisions about to be made lol. You get the feeling of someone drunk, looking at a tattoo design and going “yeah fuck it, let’s do it”. Ink is addictive and like drink something some find solace in from the world as the line says “Smash your sadness, go get a tattoo, we were born to win or lose”.
The tone changes again with the next track Off with his Head (featuring Cassyette) with a wonderfully heavy fuzzy bassline running through the track holding it together brilliantly. With a more rock like feel to it, the addition of Cassyette really adds an edge to this one, with supporting vocals that range from a deep growl to an intense high pitched squeal backing the chorus sections. Loud fuzzy guitars dominate, and the track builds to a crescendo of noise.
The bass dominates again with Cobra Queen as it continues the unrelenting pace of the album. “She’s a Cobra Queen, cold blooded…. already knows you better than you know yourself”. Part way through the track fades away as if it’s ending to be revived with a vocal line, before it explodes again fully of energy and pace.
Maybe my favourite track on the album, is Rat Race, which has the most distinct feel to it. It has a fantastic more ‘old school punk’ vibe to it, with some squealing sax bringing back thoughts of the bands like the Blockheads, with a fantastic erratic, anarchic sax section at the end. Simply wonderful.
The album draws to a close with Original Sin. The bass dominates again through this one, and it’s a track that really shows off Frank’s vocal skills and song writing “I hear the devil at the back of my mind, not everyday just some of the time”. (If you haven’t seen it check out the video of Frank and Dean’s acoustic performance on YouTube at Paste Studio NYC live from The Manhattan Center). It brings a whole new dynamic to some classic Rattlesnake tracks and shows what a great singer Frank is. Then half way through the pace drops and we have an almost whispered and wonderfully seductive vocal section from Primal Scream’s Bobby Gillespie, backed by a muted sax line giving it that edge, before the track builds again to it’s inevitable conclusion.
And then that’s it….. the frenetic audible assault on our ears is over. Sticky flows so well it’s just one banging track after another and honestly it’s been a long time since I’ve listened to an album where I didn’t want to skip past a song or two to get to the next good bit. It covers a range of subjects including masculinity, love, mental health and anxiety, not to mention freedom of expression so well.
I’ve been waiting for this one, and the singles released previously in My Town, Sticky, and Go Get A Tattoo raised my expectations even higher. Fair to say that none of the tracks let this album experience down and I loved it’s frantic, exciting, crazy energy from the first note to the last. I can’t wait to see Frank and the Rattlesnakes at Rock City in November. It’s going to be a wild night.
So far for me, and time’s running out on 2021, this is album of the year right here and an excellent score of 10/10. “Sticky” is out Friday 15 October 2021 and can be pre-ordered on the bands website here: https://www.andtherattlesnakes.com/
Tracklist
1. Sticky
2. Cupid’s Arrow
3. Bang Bang (feat Lynks)
4. Take It To The Brink
5. My Town (feat Joe Talbot)
6. Go Ge A Tattoo (fat Lynks)
7. Off With His Head (feat Cassyette)
8. Cobra Queen
9. Rat Race
10. Original Sin (feat Bobby Gillespie)
