Review by Gary Spiller for MPM
With their genuinely impressive debut album ‘Too Hot To Handle’ South Wales’s rapidly upsurging hotshots The Now have landed a benchmark release. Launched a couple of months ago, at the beginning of March, ‘Too Hot To Handle’ has caught the attention of many with richly deserved positivity right across the board.
Deservedly so in my opinion as this long-playing studio offering has been on a constant spin for the daily commute for some time now. It’s a phrase I’ve found myself repeating on many occasions over the past few years but, without a shadow of a doubt, there’s definitely something in the South Welsh waters.
The Now, comprising of the capacious individual talents of Shane Callaghan (lead vocals / guitar), Callum Bromage (guitar / vocals), Jay Evans (bass / vocals) and Will Scott (drums), are a perfect example of an entity being more powerful than the total of the components.
In terms of emergence The Now are hot-footing, and indeed catching up, with the likes of compatriots Those Damn Crows, Florence Black, and Scarlet Rebels. However, their path is divergent from those aforementioned acts with their hooky take on rock being luxuriantly fringed with an alt / indie wrap. Think along the lines of INXS and The Stereophonics crammed into the confines of a lift and then detonated with the kinetics of The Struts and you’re on your way.
A stellar support slot, in Cardiff, opening for Feeder has proven how far The Now have journeyed in the relatively short space of time since we first saw them live, across the Welsh capital, at The Globe at the back end of 2022. Cracking sets at The Isle of Wight festival along with Planet Rockstock and, most recently, Swansea’s Station 18 have ensured that their particular brand of bottled lightning continues to grab attention.
Titular track, and most recent single, ‘Too Hot To Handle’ kickstarts matters off with an alloying of the raucousness of the Stereophonics’ 1998 smash single ‘The Bartender And The Thief’ with the gentler aspects of INXS. A delectable introduction that, with a deep sincere message, serves well for what is to transpire.
Of the album-opening track, inspired by their reading of folks’ struggles with mental health, affable frontman Callaghan notes “The line “I’ve got a problem in my head, I’ll just watch it burn instead” … this is really what a lot of men do and instead of talking about it we tend to hold it all in until it gets too much.” Adding “We hope the song can give anyone some comfort if they’re ever feeling like there’s no escape but remember there’s always someone there to pick up the pieces.”
Serving up segments of Franz Ferdinand’s 2004 no. 3 single ‘Take Me Out’ the album’s lead single, already arena-ready, ‘Devil Inside Me’ possesses a propulsive jitter that has an inner strength that ensures the most leaden of creatures will be up and jumping. Dropping back to ‘Special Kind Of Stupid’, an early single from some four years ago, rasps and seethes with an acerbity as The Now continue to plough the ‘indie’ furrow.
With a title that personally resonates deeply with this humble scribe February’s single, which was released just a week prior to the album itself, ‘Truth Always Comes Out In The End’ shimmers and shivers coruscantly prior to taking a poignant swipe at the political ‘elite’. With the concluded enquiry into the contaminated blood scandal and the ongoing investigation into the horrors of the Post Office’s Horizon system – all ahead of the sharply called election – this couldn’t be more relevant.
““It’s about the upper classes and the political elite using the working class as pawns for their own game. We as individuals will never have the power to override their demands and as a working class group we depend on the truth of their actions to come out and bring them down” explains Callaghan. Looking over at the stark Westminster scenery the metaphorical nooses are beginning to swing in readiness to claim careers with this, quite ironically, merry refrain for accompaniment.
Dropping tempo but no one jot of intensity the balladic ‘Live And Die’ demonstrates a sensitive perspective to The Now hitherto uncovered thus far on the album. It’s an airy contrast driven by empathetic keys and Callaghan’s raw, emotive vocals fully in tune with then track’s challenging subject of personal loss.
Sticking a middle digit up firmly towards the direction of the less savoury sectors of the music industry ‘Get Out’ oozes defiance from every pore. The band disclose “We signed to a record label and basically we had to get out of the contract due to …. “technical issues”.” Clocking in at just over the two minutes mark the number firmly delivers its uncompromising message in double-quick time.
Swiftly billowing the resounding darkened tones of ‘His Last Dimension’ despatch thundering waves with Bromage’s banshee-like guitaring ecstatically thrashing and writhing alongside Evans’s meaty lines of bass all housed within the overall gargantuan energies.
The raging ‘Wind Up’ is wolverine to its core whilst, driven by a reverberating bass, ‘Girl You Got Me’ rampages like a performance enhancement of INXS melded with Rocket From The Crypt. The track is as wild as the combination suggests with it’s a-rocking and a-rolling vibrating in a mad Brownian motion.
The swaggering ‘Friendly Fire’ with its infectious ‘woo-hoos’ is part Dandy Warhol’s ‘Bohemian Like You’ and another part Rolling Stones’ classic ‘Brown Sugar’ whilst steadfastly maintaining its own vigorous identity.
The highly atmospheric intro of album-closing ‘Time Is Over’ sends tingles along the spine. Callaghan’s expansive vocals atop solitary keyboards constructs skywards before the band join in on the action powering the second half of the number speedily to the chequered flag.
My post-Feeder support slot of The Now being the next ‘big thing’ to come out of Wales holds firm with what is simply put one of THE albums of 2024!
SOCIAL MEDIA
