Words by Orlando Niebles
Loose Fit have burst through our culture’s woven fabric with a stomping, gasping banger. Building on the success of their eponymous first release, put forth in 2020, Stupid Drama is the third single from their upcoming album Social Graces, which releases at the end of the month via FatCat Records. Previous singles were Exhale and the title track, Social Graces - all compositions which point us in the direction of an exciting body of work to come.
Photo Credit: Liz Ham
The group - comprised of lead singer Anna Langdon, drummer Kaylene Milner, guitarist Max Edgar and bassist Richard Martin - have been likened to bands such as Sleaford Mods, Native Cats and Tropical Fuck Storm. The group have risen from Australia’s very lively and unmatched post-punk scene, driven by the likes of Amyl and the Sniffers and Crack Cloud. Langdon’s vocals have the razor-edge of Mark E Smith, with the ringing boldness and clarity of Ari Up of The Slits.
“It’s the way that [Anna] Langdon delivers them, in her Mark E Smith, deadpan, disinterested, eye-rolling tone that binds the themes in the song together so well.”- Euphoria
The constant reliable rhythm gets challenged by screeching sax, hi-hat eruptions and disjointed bass pedalling, harking back to the intimacy and serendipitous feel that traditional post-punk of the early 80s established.
On the single Anna Langdon says “I always feel like I’m gasping for air in this song, which fits well with the theme of being completely fed-up and trying to laugh about it.”
This sense of helplessness and inertia is addressed with abrasive liveliness - an unequivocal commentary on today’s society and the past two years, where governments respond to the resultant cess-pit of domestic depression, entrapment and social instability with feeble advice of stoicism and humility. Lyrics such as ‘I’m sick of living in a casserole of private space/ Point me to the exit, please’ are juxtaposed with familiar phrases depicting modernity’s insistence on us concealing our true emotions: ‘Pretty good, not bad, could be better, could be worse/ Can’t complain’. The band were forced to press pause after their initial release due to the pandemic, which forced artists all over the world into a less certain landscape, the future of which was lesser still. The authoritarian nature of Australia’s covid regime could have made space for more rebellious and meaningful music to take hold, which for us listeners is a definite silver lining.
Bassist Richard Martin says: “I think the album is a truthful document of a weird time. Covid-era has sucked (of course), but it did give us time to explore new sounds and ways of working. It was a shit time to be a band, but it was a great time to have a vessel to channel all our anxieties and pent-up energy into. I think the album has all that fucked-up 2020/2021 energy in it.”
Listen to ‘Stupid Drama’ HERE
Social Graces out 29th April 2022 via Fatcat Records
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