Bitter Branches – Your Neighbours are Failures
Release Date: 25th February 2022
Label: Rude Records / Equal Vision Records
Bandcamp
Genre: Post-Hardcore, Punk.
FFO: Verbal Assault, The Hope Conspiracy, Ink & Dagger.
Review By: Paul Cairney
Your Neighbours are Failures is as pissed off an album as you will hear this year. Philadelphia based post-hardcore outfit, Bitter Branches, have released a vitriolic 39 minutes of beautiful aggression, alongside supreme riffage and a bass that holds everything together.
In reality, it isn’t the music that makes this album as angry sounding – it is the truly superb vocal performance of Tim Singer, a man who wants to rant at the world. Ironically, his surname betrays his delivery, as he doesn’t so much as sing, instead he venomously spits out his words, often repeating lines, ‘You’re still anonymous…. you’re still anonymous’ he tactfully advises in Plastic Sword.
‘Have you Tried Jogging’ has a staccato riff that is reminiscent of RATM, but it only forms part of the track, as the riff stutters and leaps throughout. In lesser hands, it could be chaotic, but in the hands of Bitter Branches, it fits like the metaphorical glove. Every single one of the 10 tracks will have a section where you are punching the air, flashing the horns, furiously loosening your neck muscles or hitting the air-drums with unfettered abandon.
If you buy into Your Neighbours are Failures, you will be rewarded with each and every song. You will keenly listen to what Singer has to say, you will savour each of the riffs, and you will glory in the way that the tracks are constructed with supreme confidence. Bitter Branches will deliver each and every time, and the album will improve on every repeat listen.
However, this album may not be for everyone, some may say the lack of variation in the vocals is a weakness, they may say that time signatures in the songs don’t gel. These would be legitimate concerns for some, but I would tell them that they are utterly wrong and that Your Neighbours are Failures is an album that I will revisit regularly and is well worth your time.
(4 / 5)
