Better Lovers “Highly Irresponsible”

The term ‘supergroup’ often sends shudders down the spine of fans. The initial idea that musician A from this band you like with musician B from that band combining often feels like Christmas morning until you realise all you got was a cheap pair of slippers and a constant sense of disappointment that you cannot trust your heroes again.

Then every once in a while, one lands so perfectly that the term ‘supergroup’ could be ‘superheroes’ instead. Yes, you guessed it, this debut album from Better Lovers is the latter.

Combining the musical talents of former Every Time I Die alumni Jordan Buckley, Dillinger Escape Plan’s Greg Puciato and the guy who produces all your favourite albums in Will Putney pulling double duty, there are things you’re gonna expect and that is that some of them are unexpected.

Puciato for his part is a musical assassin that has his fingers in many other projects, including supergroups, and is always, unequivocally himself while the other styles of the band ferment away. It’s his vocal style that illuminates this album and the rest come to him like moths to a flame as beacon to stay on the path.

I’m not going to sit here and talk about the subtitles or intricacies of the music. What I will say is if you ask me does this sound great, I’ll say hell yes!

Opener Lies Between The Lines is a supernova of energy that explodes on Puciato’s vocals and the fuel of Buckley and Putney guitars is pure rock n roll heaven. It’s swashbuckling and the line if ‘I can’t believe I’m just like you’ snarls.

The blast of punk rock that is Your Misplaced Self sounds unhinged and wild. How Putney manages to reign in Buckley, already an extraordinary combustible riff master with ETID, in check deserves to be studied in a museum by professors it’s that primal.

Puciato has many great lines, the repeating refrain of ‘you taught yourself a lie that you repeat it’ on A White Horse Covered In Blood has the attitude of a 50’s biker, high quiff and switchblade in hand about to do you some damage.

Future Myopia really shows Buckley influence at this point that Puciato just garnishes across the top of the meaty powerful groove that Sabbath wish they wrote.

Buckley himself has mentioned that the music makes him want to run through walls, and that really is an accurate description. It taps into your brain just off centre, knocks you off kilter, eye twitching and teases you to listen and react differently. Drive fast, punch harder, lift heavier, run longer, it’s equally perfect in the gym, on the track and the pit.

Before you think the whole album is the sound of some unhinged musicians with too much time and not enough supervision, there are two subtle tracks.

Deliver Us From Life is intense and moody which screams ‘What if I’m not inclined to believe you’ while At All Times is the soft swaying ballad Puciato has wanted to write for years. Who knew it would be in this band?

Drowning in A Burning World is chaotic as the drums escape the preservation, running free, and that breakdown is a pit stomper while Superman Died Paralyzed may well be a brutally accurate title however it’s not as brutal or accurate as the riffs and drums that wheel like a runaway train.

This album is the equivalent of drinking ten energy drinks in thirty minutess, getting the keys to a Ferrari, then hitting the open road with your best friends in tow at a 200mph. Adrenaline pumping, crazy, heart racing and a irresponsibly magnificent time.

Album Review By Iain McCallum

HIGHLY IRRESPONSIBLE – OUT OCTOBER 25
https://bfan.link/highly-irresponsible