Rancho relaxo.
Like many UK alt-rock/punk debut albums, “Relax You’re Nearly Dead” is a distinctly lo-fi affair but the fuzz and slightly muffled delivery fits The Rampton Release Date’s scratchy, noisy tunes very well. Reminiscent of the now unfortunately dead McLusky (mainly in the vocal delivery) and occasionally bringing to mind post-hardcore legends (and also much missed) Million Dead, TRRD have thundering bass lines, insistent guitar riffs and some decent melodies. They are also very, very British; accents, quirky little samples and nods here and there towards their Brit-punk roots all give the game away here.
The album’s formula is consistent and not particularly varied but it doesn’t suffer from being repetitive; simple, crunchy and to the point riffs are aided by those lovely rich bass-lines, caustic lyrics (“assholes/ surrounded by assholes/[...]might as well get a shotgun” from ‘I’m Surrounded’ being a case in point) are delivered in a distinctive half scream half talk vocal style and the fact that most of the tracks are under three minutes helps to make the album fly by.
If this album wasn’t so heavy (with guitars verging on metal on tracks like ‘The Confession’ and ‘Don’t Suffocate Your Sister’) it wouldn’t be half as interesting. This kind of quirky very British alt-rock has been done many times, but ramping up the volume and making all the tracks really punchy, not just in length but also in rhythm and adding those verging on psychotic vocals takes your mind off the fact that it may not be wholly unique and many of the tracks sound quite similar; instead what you remember about it once the record has stopped spinning is that something much more interesting, exciting, and actually, pretty good happened.