Working Men’s Club playing YES in Manchester (Gary Mather for Live4ever)
If you were to compare the singles Bad Blood and Teeth you would assume they came at different points in their band’s career.
But they are the early offerings which demonstrate how much Working Men’s Club have evolved over the course of 2019. Bad Blood was a promising debut, bouncing shimmering indie designed for the dancefloor, and was enough to get them a deal with Heavenly Records. Teeth is something else entirely.
Gloriously menacing, with an electronic hook that stands alongside the greats (i.e. impossible to forget), and guitars that sound like jet planes lost in a hurricane, it’s like nothing else this year, with a haunting, Godlike vocal from Sydney Minsky-Sargeant on the verse (which sounds like your conscience on a Sunday morning) which then becomes more despairing as the songs reaches its crescendo, vocals and guitars working in simpatico.
Despite the immediacy of the song they’ve somehow managed to make a it a grower too. Only after repeated listens do the Happy Mondays funk guitars betray themselves, and the oblique lyrics allow the imagination to flourish. Yet it didn’t start with such intensity, as Sydney told Live4ever upon Teeth being named our #1 track of 2019:
“The first demo I did was slower and a bit drowsier with less aggressive vocals. But then after putting it into the set-up it became more up-tempo and dancier. That’s happened with a few tunes now, however I’m trying to write some straight-up dance tunes too.”
Teeth was one of the high points of a successful year for Working Men’s Club, “2019 has been amazing and really busy, but incredibly important,” Sydney says. “Less that a year ago no-one knew who we were, and we hadn’t released any music, so it’s been a pretty crazy year for us.”
That’s without question, and 2020 promises more milestones for the four-piece, but before that the band will be taking a well-earned break over the festive period: “We’ll be coming down after finishing our album and hopefully having a rest after a really busy year before continuing to tour the UK and Europe, and releasing our record.”
It’s probably best to follow their lead; with many more weapons like Teeth in their armoury, Working Men’s Club are going to be relentless in 2020.
Richard Bowes
