Shame - One Rizla

For the last ten years, we have had several newcomer bands that come as the big promise to revive rock music after the imminent death of indie rock in the late 2000's. The Vaccines, Palma Violets, Royal Blood, Wolf Alice... all of them had been hyped (we are looking at you, NME) as "The New Strokes", the band that will lead a new hoard of young people to love rock music again. And if the quality of their music varies to several degrees, all of them have failed to live to their own hype and at best, are stuck in the middle lines of festival line-ups below very different acts like The XX, Lana del Rey, Kendrick Lamar or The Weekend, who seem to be the ones who have managed to create a true influence with young music lovers.

At this point in life, people are not buying Shame as the same hype media are selling them (again, this redemptive rock band), and probably that's a fair thing for them. Without those expectations and preconceptions, we are able to enjoy a track like One Rizla as it is, a contracultural track that will sound better in a small club rather than a rock anthem for the main stage in Glastonbury.

One Rizla has the anger and the bite of old-school post-punk from Fugazi. The songwriting is very tongue-in-cheek, it lacks the poetry of King Krule or the political power of Savages, but it's still incendiary and moving. This is rock for working classes, unlike Protomartyr that is highly intellectual or Sheer Mag that are fighting for social justice, Shame is here for the alienated ones who just want to scream to the world: "Do I give a fuck?".

There's the strong baseline playing while frontman Charlie Steen goes on a rant of self-depreciation "My nails ain't manicured, my voice ain't the best you've heard" but soon, what could have been the cliché "I'm not the best but I can love you", turns into the opposite, they made us know that we got the wrong idea and then they show pride on their unique un-classy selfs.

They enjoy being the underdogs, and if their lyrics are an indication, they won't buy the label of Best New Band. They sing "I'd rather be fucked than sad", and their energy is a good sign that they are having a good time playing their angry rock music.