“A searing indictment of clickbait culture which burns white hot, the chorus invokes the hysteria of the Millennium Bug as guitars and drums combine into a frenzy of their own.” That’s how we described ‘Turtle of Reaper’, the lead single from Babe Report‘s upcoming album Did You Get Better on Exploding In Sound. The song serves as a blistering introduction to a blistering album. Ten songs which don’t so much burn as combust, the entire thing wrapped up in less than half an hour.
Which isn’t to say the album is is one tone. With its anxious meditation on the dog-eat-dog nature of contemporary culture, latest single ‘Universal’ twitches and simmers across its two-minute run time, sometimes almost hesitant, sometimes barrelling forward with unchecked momentum. “This one is all about climbing up onto your neighbor’s back to succeed,” as the band explain. “Most aspects of life are not a zero-sum game, but when they are, it feels ethically wrong to win.” The sound captures this unease within its changing pace, where needling unease is swept up into a fervour of movement and weight as though imploring all caught within its radius to join the frantic climb.
Tell me is it better to feel
The winners they are such a big deal
Is it all original sin
Anyone can scratch and they winHalf-truth is only universal
Half-truth is quick to stigmatize