Geese - "Getting Killed" (2025)

Every couple of years there is a relatively unknown or newcomer indie act that drops a project that absolutely explodes in the music nerd circles of the internet, to the point where the hype becomes borderline obnoxious and a bit of a joke in itself. In 2019 it was black midi, in 2022 it was Black Country, New Road, and last year was Magdalena Bay. Geese's new record, Getting Killed, has become 'that album' for 2025. I feel like this effect has been even more intense for Geese than previously, with the atmosphere around the band being absolutely feverish and even peaking into the mainstream with the band being subject to SNL spoofs and being one of the first names on next years Reading and Leeds lineups (a festival I don't think any of the previous bands I mentioned have actually played).

Getting Killed is technically the band's fourth record, although most consider it to be their third 'actual' one, as they independently recorded their debut as teenagers and is currently not available on streaming services. I've been aware of the band since 2023's 3D Country, as Fantano gave it a glowing review that really signalled the start of their rise. However, I never actually checked it out, as I was a little burned out on the whole post-Brexit, Windmill Scene art rock it was being compared to (Similarly I've not given Viagra Boys a proper try despite similar levels of acclaim). But Getting Killed kept getting pummelled at me by TikTok as 'the' album of 2025, so I decided to give it a shot.

And yeah, I see why the pretentious corners of the internet are jamming this so hard. Frontman Cameron Winter's vocals resonate with this nervous, neurotic energy that definitely tickles that Isaac Wood shaped itch. The instrumentals are fiery and powerful, like early Idles or Fontaines. However, being from New York, I can hear the lineage of The Velvet Underground, Stooges, and The Strokes in their music, which gives them a sense of effortless coolness that their British and Irish peers could never dream of. It's a record that can appeal as equally to the chronically online music heads, and the indie kids chugging dark fruits in a muddy field. 

The record opens with Trinidad, a genuinely batshit way to introduce the audience to Getting Killed. The song slowly opens up with a subtle bluesy groove and Cameron's Thom York-esque croon, before it the chorus hits and absolutely bombards you with blasts of discordant noisy guitars and horns, as Winter and guest vocalist JPEGMAFIA wail "THERE'S A BOMB IN MY CAR!". The song is so in your face and insane, but in the best way. I don't think the song is explicitly about a terrorist, with the rest of the lyrics painting the picture of just a regular person who has just snapped. It's about how anyone has it in them to just flip and do something incredibly violent when they reach their limit. This segues into the wildly different Cobra. The song is this jangly piece of twee indie-country, with none of the batshittery of Trinidad. The song is just as off-kilter in its own way, with lyrics centring around comparing romance to a snake charmer in a very sinister, calculated way. However, it's disguised in the cute instrumental Winter's emotive croon.

This speaks to the variety in the tracklist. The title track and 100 Horses have a propulsive, Krautrockian energy to them. The bluesy guitar riff and chanted choral backing vocals of Getting Killed sound like what I'd image getting killed feels like. It's like a complete sensory overwhelm. There are also some very Radiohead-esque passages to the song where they strip it all back to just the bass groove that gives a real sense of dynamics to the track. 100 Horses doubles down on this overwhelming, chaotic vibe with lyrics such as "For all people must die scared, or they must die nervous". The song is build around this grizzled, gnarly guitar riff and layers of harmonised vocals. It makes the song sound larger than life and it only grows throughout the track as more and more layers come piling in

Husbands is a stripped back and chunky ballad where the gravelly tambre in Winter's voice really comes out, again featuring lyrics revolving death and violence and insincere relationships. Islands Of Man similarly is built around a chunky and funky bass groove with less of the chaos on top, with Winter crooning about about "what is real and what is fake". The song slowly builds up in intensity and volume, before it just cuts out and switches to much more beautiful horn driven finale. Half Real and Au Pays Du Cocaine sit back to back on the start of the second half and switch into very Velvet Underground territory. Half Real has that noisy, droning backing instrumentation reminiscent of The Black Angel's Death Song, and Au Pays Du Cocaine is a beautiful ballad with chiming guitars and world weary, lovelorn lyrics just like Lou Reed's best. I can see why this was the track that has popped off on TikTok. 

The record then goes on such a run with the final three tracks. Bow Down is rhythmic, groovy, art punk / Krautrock fusion with spikey, staccato guitar stabs and Winter's melodically descending vocals on the hook "You don't know what its like to bow down, down, down / To Maria's bones". The track then explodes into something much more loose and danceable in its final moments. Taxes is once again a very Radiohead-y ballad about self pity, comparing a failed relationship to paying taxes. At the half way point, the track goes from this very stark, ugly song and explodes into this very anthemic, beautiful, almost Coldplay-ish climax. This leads into the closer, Long Island City Here I Come, which returns to chaotic rhythms and disorienting layers of the title track and 100 Horses. The song is essentially like a big hype up song, with the protagonist returning from a set back (probably the breakup referenced several times in the lyrics throughout the album) to take Long Island City. The tempo just keeps rising and rising, and the layers just keep filling out as Winter chants "Here I come, here I come" over and over. It's as much a batshit closer as Trinidad is as an opener and such an energetic and fun way to end the record.

Getting Killed is an incredibly fun and varied listen, with some great songwriting and impressive playing throughout. I will say though, while it plays with some interesting ideas and themes, they don't really come together to form a really profound statement. Not that it needs to, but I do get the feeling that it wants to be saying more than it actually is. But taken for what is here, it is definitely one of the best records of the year and I'm very glad I'm going to be able to catch them live next year.

Top Tracks: Trinidad, Cobra, Getting Killed, 100 Horses, Half Real, Au Pays Du Cocaine, Bow Down, Taxes, Long Island City Here I Come

8/10

Green Day - "Father of All Motherfuckers" (2020)

Green Day have been rather directionless since American Idiot in 2004. Their records have flip-flopped between pale imitations of that album's style (21st Century Breakdown and Revolution Radio) and a more 'back to basics' form of pop-punk that called back to the group's 90s work (¡Uno!, ¡Dos!, and ¡Tré!), All of which have felt rather redundant in my opinion. This record does not follow in that tradition, instead taking a left turn into 60s garage punk revival territory, similar to what groups like The Hives, Jet and The Vines were doing in the early 2000s. 

And it just doesn't work. A lot of those groups have gotten stick for their sound over the years, due to it sounding stale and done to death, and it is still exactly the same for this new Green Day record. They don't do anything new with the sound at all, and it is so squeaky-cleanly produced that there is absolutely zero edge to it at all.

This is in contradiction to much of the lyrical content and also the bands promotion of the record, which is all about 'rocking out' and 'not giving a fuck' mentality. It makes everything here feel so fake and plasticy. Yeah let's rock out to this completely edgeless and toothless collection of songs. This is compounded by the cringe-inducing title and cover-art. The albums full title is Father of All Motherfuckers, but I only found this out when I went on its Wikipedia page, as wherever this album is available to stream or buy it will be listed as "Father of All..." with this awful censored cover. It's so transparently false that it's hard to believe a band as experienced as Green Day really believe what they were making was rebellious and 'punk-rock'.

The best tracks here are tolerable, if completely forgettable. The title track serves well enough as music for a car ad. The surf rock vibe of Stab You in the Heart has more energy than a lot of the tracks, as does Take the Money and crawl (which is also the punchiest). However the hooks are not memorable in the slightest, and slip my brain as soon as the tracks are over. The worst moments do start to grate after a few listens. Fire, Ready, Aim is beyond formulaic, and features awful whooping background vocals. I Was a Teenage Teenager is about as awkward as the title suggests. It sounds like a bad imitation of Weezer, with lyrics trying to convey teenage angst. However, Green Day are nearly 50 now, and the terrible hook of "I was a teenage teenager" really does not convey any genuine sense of relatability. Junkies on a High sounds like if Green Day made an Imagine Dragons song (although to it's better than most Imagine Dragons songs), complete with all the stale and played out 2010s pop rock tropes (supposedly 'epic' bass drop as the chorus hits, tacky pitch-shifted backing vocals, ect.).

This album is perfectly tolerable, but there is absolutely nothing inspired or unique about it. It is a crop of shiny pop rock tunes for beer commercials and sporting arenas. The band's awkward lack of self-awareness about how they are promoting it and what it supposedly represents also does it no favours. It's not even 'so bad it's good', since there is nothing interesting about this record.

3/10

Tame Impala - "Tame Impala" (2008)

Since we're exactly 1 month out from Tame Impala's long awaited 4th album, The Slow Rush, I thought I'd go back to the only one of the bands releases I haven't covered yet, their 2008 self-titled debut EP. Here the band sounds like a work in progress, figuring out their sound and their influences more blatantly show.

These tracks are more roughly produced than the band's later work, giving the EP a low-fi, garage rock feel. They also veer consistently towards the band's blues and stoner rock side, making the release likely the groups heaviest. However the rougher production means that they never quite pack the same punch that the heavier tracks on Innerspeaker and Lonerism do. The opener, Desire Be Desire Go, demonstrates this. The song is essentially the same as the version that appears on Innerspeaker, except the rougher production makes the EP version feel less kinetic and driven.

Skeleton Tiger and Half Full Glass Of Wine have an undeniable Led Zeppelin influence, with the later literally sounding like the band's best attempt at a Led Zep cover (Complete with Kevin Parker doing a Robert Plant falsetto), but slowed down by a 1/3. The slowing also shifts the pitch down, giving the track this real sludgy stoner rock vibe. Skeleton Tiger initially sounds more Beatles indebted (with Kevin trying to sound like John Lennon as he so often did in the early days of the band), but then breaks down into a bridge that evokes Whole Lotta Love's quiet guitars and rumbling drums but with more effects. 41 Mosquitoes Flying In Formation is full on stoner rock. Kevin's vocals drone on over this heavy, sludgy groove, transforming into an hypnotic "oh-ah, ah-oh, oh-ah, ah-oh" at points in the track.

The intensity peaks at this point, with the last two tracks mellowing out slightly. Slide Through My Fingers lacks the intense groove of 41 Mosquitoes, but retains the mysteriousness with Arabic sounding guitar licks mixed to sound like they're right off in the distance. The Beatles influence once again raises its head on the closing track, Wander. Parts of this song remind me of what I'd imagine Tomorrow Never Knows would sound like if you replaced the sitars on that track with blaring guitars and drums.

Despite it's obvious influences, this EP is a fun and easy listen. It is obviously weaker when compared to the bands first two LPs, but shows a band in growth with some decent songs. I really wish there was a version of some of these tracks with better production, to really show off how immense they could sound. I wouldn't say the EP is a necessity (it's not like the band are ever going to play any of these songs live anymore), but its a really fun listen for fans waiting for LP number 4.

Top Tracks: Skeleton Tiger, Half Full Glass Of Wine, 41 Mosquitoes Flying In Formation, Slide Through My Fingers

7/10