Pissed Jeans have been making gnarly noise for 13 years and on their fifth album, ‘Why Love Now’, the male-fronted quartet are taking aim at the mundane discomforts of modern life - from fetish webcams to office-supply deliveries. Pissed Jeans’ gutter-scraped amalgamation of sludge, punk, noise and bracing wit make the band - Matt Korvette, Brad Fry (guitar), Randy Huth (bass) and Sean McGuinness (drums) - a release valve for a world where absurdity seems in a constant battle trying to outdo itself. ‘Why Love Now’ picks at the bursting seams that are barely holding 21st Century life together. No Wave legend Lydia Lunch shacked up in Philadelphia to produce ‘Why Love Now’ alongside local metal legend Arthur Rizk. The combination of Lunch’s spiritual guidance and Rizk’s technical prowess supercharged Pissed Jeans and the bracing ‘Why Love Now’ documents them at their grimy, grinning best. While its references may be very early 21st Century, its willingness to state its case cement it as an album in line with punk’s tradition of turning norms on their heads and shaking them loose.

Pissed Jeans return with a great blast of sludge-punk full of observational lyricism picking at society's absurdities. Co-produced by Lydia Lunch! Excellent record...

By Adam