There are very few bands who can manage to fit 28 songs into an hour long record – Take a Worm for a Walk Week is a notable exception.
As the band’s last gig and therefore last release, the album is an hour long, gut-churningly psychopathic display of everything they have unleashed upon the music-loving public since their 2007 debut.
The result is a terrifying concoction of who-knows-what-genre; whatever you want to label it, it’s loud.
Opening with the beastly ‘These Luscious Things’, the album instantly forces the listener to sit up to attention, and near enough shit themselves.
It’s loud, oppressive and dirty; the distinctive and downright deranged Scottish howl of Joe Quimby shoves itself to the forefront and remains there in a hysterical stupor for the remainder of the album, rather beautifully.
Obviously, no live album is complete without sounding… well… live – this comes across all too well in Whacks On! Whacks Off!.
What the listener misses throughout earlier TAWFAWW albums (with a few small exceptions) is a heap of patter that makes their live shows all the more genuinely entertaining.
In this album, nearly every song ends with some form of patter; Schwarzenegger quotes, naughty Street Fighter II references, stories from Fresh Prince, something about some dick from Rutherglen (sorry, had to); the list goes on.
However, this record is more than just a bunch of ridiculous but masterful patter-merchants spouting shite, it’s a brutal, visceral assault of 28 tight and downright wonderful tunes.
From the lunatic-ridden half minute bombardments of earlier songs, such as ‘Show Your Face’ and ‘Blackout’ to the more, for want of a better word, ‘mature’ skull crushers of ‘Coach Perry’ and ‘Portuguese Breakfast’, these guys are masters of their twisted art.
The album is also definitely not just a mismatch of loud and fast noises, which is where many bands of this ilk go very wrong.
Notes are spot on, the drumming of Jonny Scott is all but too suspicious (he has to be some form of machine) and of course Joe Quimby’s roars are entertaining as well as hilarious.
To top this all off apparently there were no edits made.
To surmise, this album is a perfect balance of sheer madness.
Words: Calum Stewart
