Feel Worse

USA Nails

Released on 3/22/24 by One Little Independent
Main artists: USA Nails
Genre: Punk / New Wave

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Thrashy, post-punk UK outfit USA Nails never short their fans on bombast, and despite a hefty discography, the group never feel stale. Instead, Urgency and seriousness permeate Feel Worse, their sixth record alongside slews of EPs, live recordings and split releases. Of course, any fans of the band over the last near-decade know those two descriptors are wildly off-course. The band aggressively shrug off conventional post-punk norms—this is not an album of playful speaking over simple rhythm as much as it is an album thumbing its nose at tropes.

The run of tracks that start the second half serves as a prime example. While early songs on Feel Worse indicate that this may be their heaviest record to date (see opener "Cathartic Entertainment" or the title track), mid-album screecher "Networking Opportunity" is classic USA Nails—a barrage of noisy guitar noodles and electronics that build over playfully philosophical questions: "What is the meaning of pleasure?" and "What is the meaning of misfortune?" The intentionality in ultra-silly synth jam "Holiday Sea" is a break from the wall of punk riffs. (If there's a song that plays into the aforementioned tropes, it’s "On Computer Screen"—a speaking-heavy song that laments passing time on electronic devices—but by then the band has fully settled into a wall of sound versus macabre lyricism groove.)

By the sarcasm-dripped final track, "I Love It When You Succeed," the record has played out the band’s two inner-narratives: full-on noise punk has ceded into post-punk warbling with heavy edges. The band have created their least delicate and most them album to date. The tail of their arc is easily caught; the inside joke that everything is both meaningless and all-too-meaningful is more inviting than ever. © Jeff Laughlin/Qobuz

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Feel Worse

USA Nails

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