Album Reviews

- by Tom Dumarey

What pretty much started as Australia’s answer to The Bronx (the band, not the NYC neighborhood) back in 2010, has since evolved into of down under’s more adventurous exports. Case in point, the band’s fourth album ‘Nature / Nurture,’ which also marks their first release on Fat Wreck Chords.

Don’t fret. They still deal in nasty slabs of hardcore punk when they feel like it. And well, they still feel like it quite a lot. But they will just as well veer off for more psychedelic moments, the kind of straight-up punk rock tunes that would make Frenzal Rhomb proud and - god forbid - something that sounds like a sitar solo, while also proving they can be just as loud and in-your-face with keyboards instead of guitars in the song ‘1:19’.

With ‘Nature / Nurture,’ Clowns take us on a 35-minute long trip spread out over 11 songs. I’ll leave it up to you to decide if it’s the kind of trip where you step on the gas and take in all the sights or the kind that involves mushrooms.

Track listing:

1. Bland is the New Black
2. Soul for Sale
3. Freezing in the Sun
4. Nature
5. I Wanna Feel Again
6. I Shaved My Legs for You
7. 1:19
8. Prick
9. Prey for Us
10. May I Be Exhumed?
11. Nurture