The Girobabies

Utopia: An imagined place or state of things in which everything is perfect.
Where exactly this paradise has gone is the question pursed on the lips of Girobabies singer-come-rapper Mark McG throughout the band’s new album. Paranoia, partnered with a questioning air, stand draped around a scuzzy architecture, as the tormented frontman with the megaphone attempts to unravel our dystopian lives.

The sonic murkiness of earlier tracks (‘Equinox’ and ‘Secret Animal’) makes way for a more psychedelic, even grunge-like tonality. Meanwhile, the rhythms often verge on funk, with a rotational side-note in catchy melody lines too. This genre bending should perhaps be a turn-off but actually serves to form its own cohesive thread throughout the record, pulling you in as it plays.

At just about the half way point of the album, when the campfire is crackling and the heavy breathing is becoming a bit worrying, the music kicks in on ‘Late Night Sketchy’, and it becomes clear that what we’re listening to is a kind of Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds style lament about how disenchanted and shit everything actually is: “sorry the dreams you were sold were not meant for your sort/the dreams you dreamt were only meant for the other ones.” A heavy mysticism sweeps through the track, offset by a rich and important brand of lyricism.

This style of song-writing isn’t unusual for the band, who in the past have written songs about everything from ‘Jeremy Kyle’ to ‘Bank Charges’. What has changed though is how everything on record here feels much more consistent and unified, not to mention very well produced.

Lyrically the songs on ‘Who Took Utopia?’ sway from questioning and thoughtful; as on ‘Mirrorshow’: “I just wanted to show you I miss you and hold up a mirror and let you see the legend we all see/already did my to-do list today coz it’s more of a list of the things I did already”; to provocative and opinionated, as with ‘Planet Fort Knox’: “I’m not crazy to say that I am says more about you/and I’m not wasted I just say shit I’ll stay on the real while you live your cartoon/a glutton for punishment judgement day soon.”

Importantly though, the record never veers into vitriol and that absolutely stands in its favour. The Girobabies aren’t trying to shove their opinions down our throats, instead they merely push us towards a more questioning frame of mind too. Take ‘No Place Like No Place’ for instance, and the lines: “burnt at the stake but were promised rainbows/the emperor reigns but we’re still wearing the same clothes.” It is still unquestionably a diatribe about modern day society, it’s just wrapped up in a smart rhyming couplet; poised to make us reassess the way we think, rather than spit venom at us until we agree.
In the end then, answering the question of ‘Who Took Utopia?’ becomes a trip through an album which has much more going for it than the society at the heart of the question itself. We already know the answer as much as the band do. So the real question in fact becomes, are we willing to change, or are we just going to sit back and take it?

The launch show for the album is at Glasgow’s Stereo on Saturday September 26th, with guests The Mickey 9s, Gasp & Physiks, Root System and Jamie & Shoony followed by a free afterparty with the Swither club.