EARLS | Cardboard Palace

Words: Greta Kaur-Taylor

Photography: Courtesy of Earls

Skum punk duo, Anthony Lamb and George Prosser of Earls are set to release their debut album 'Cardboard Palace' on  March 16th after successfully signing to D.I.Y. label, Earwig Records. Earls are ready to show you what years of shows and many a larger has led to. 

This is an album that sets the tone for Earls, showing they are not just another small town band adding to an already painted canvas, they are creating their own canvas of punk mess, all mixed in a pot of social, political and personal turmoil, readily packaged for your ears.

Earls are making you feel all the angst you've ever felt in one 12 track album.

Opening track 'I'm a man' sets the album up making sure that you know they are here with a fuck you attitude, with lines such as "I'm a man, so I must not cry." and "I must be the perfect bloke" Lamb questions toxic masculinity, anger in his voice, unapologetically calling out the behaviour that many see as just boys being boys.

'We are Skum' is the song that gets the crowd going at any Earls gig and guarantees a good mosh pit. It's an anthem for the poor, deprived, messy and broken youth of today. Everybody is poor, we would "rather quit eating before we quit smoking" and Earls wears the word "Skum" with pride, like that ratty badge safety pinned onto your old denim jacket.

'Coming up' is definitely the perfect track to follow "We are Skum." Yes, we're poor but we also want to go out and dance with somebody, Earls capture this with all of the right Whitney Houston references, and all the possible drug-induced nights out you could want.

"House party" is about every low budget house party you have ever been to that ends with some random geeza in your room, a smashed window, lots of glitter and vomit. It's a song that definitely isn't as deep as the band's early tracks, there will be no thoughtful conversations to this one.

'Entitled' and 'Anger Management' are both tracks that have this relentless over and over energy that sloughs away at everything they hate. "Entitled" is sharp, everything you've ever wanted to say to that one person you know that won't stop talking about mummy and daddy's trust fund. To sum it up in the words of Lamb himself, "You're so fucking entitled." 

When you get to tracks such as 'Kleptomaniac' you almost forget that this huge sound is coming from just two people, Lamb's lyrics are straight to the point, yet witty in its way with Prosser bringing his drums to the forefront, really driving the track into the ground.

Track 8 is one you will have heard if you have had the pleasure to hear Earls live.

'The boys' is a song that you really can't help but move to and it sits nicely within the album, with lines almost chant-like, you can't help but yell with Lamb.

'I Can't Move' is a such a standout track on 'Cardboard Palace' it really shows the way in which the band has more to them then thrashing screams and lines about nights out. Lamb's vocals have a rawness to it that in all honesty makes you feel every emotion at once, this is a song that is so beautifully raw and eloquent it makes you cry into your safety-pinned leather jacket.

After a very emotionally driven 4 minutes and 55 seconds, the boys are back with their political angst. 'The End is Nigh'highlights the mess that is Trump, the orange man that runs a real-life country, the risks of a nuclear outbreak, and of course our beloved Brexit. This song is a whirlwind, creating the image of apocalyptic mayhem; If Earls play us out we wouldn't mind.

'Skum king' brings it all to a close, if the debut Earls album didn't finish with the word 'Skum' in the title or, talk about going out and getting drunk and laid, I would be worried.

'Cardboard Palace' puts everything you could possibly want in 12 tracks, the party that young people and the band's generation want; the political stability, the nights out and the pay and of course the social justice we all crave.

Earls seems to highlight all our brokenness and unease and turn it into something special, let's live in this 'Cardboard Palace' together.

Get down to the release of the album @ The Cookie 16/03/19 to bathe in all its skummy glory. 

Cardboard Palace out 16th March

An album worth buying.

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