Drunk Tank Pink CD

Release Date : 15th January 2021

Shame follow up their wildly acclaimed debut with a James Ford-
produced peek into the riddled mind of the band’s frontman, Charlie Steen.

There are moments on ‘Drunk Tank Pink’ where you almost have
to reach for the sleeve to check this is the same band who made
2018’s ‘Songs Of Praise’. Such is the jump Shame have made from
the riotous post-punk of their debut to the sprawling adventurism
and twitching anxieties laid out here.  The South Londoner’s blood and guts spirit, that wink and grin of
devious charm, is still present, it’s just that it’s grown into
something bigger, something deeper, more ambitious and
unflinchingly honest.  The genius of ‘Drunk Tank Pink’ is how these lyrical themes
dovetail with the music. Opener ‘Alphabet’ dissects the premise of
performance over a siren call of nervous, jerking guitars, its
chorus thrown out like a beer bottle across a mosh pit.Songs spin off and lurch into unexpected directions throughout
here, be it ‘March Day’s escalating aural panic attack or the
shapeshifting darkness of ‘Snow Day’. There’s a Berlin era Bowie
beauty to the lovelorn ‘Human For A Minute’ while closer ‘Station
Wagon’ weaves from a downbeat mooch into a souring, soul lifting
climax in which Steen elevates himself beyond the clouds and into
the heavens. Or at least that’s what it sounds like. From the womb
to the clouds (sort of), Shame are currently very much in the pink.