Shame - Cutthroat (Standard Black Vinyl) Pre-Order Out 5/09

Shame - Cutthroat
CAT: DOC384LP  (Standard Black Vinyl)

Cutthroat is shame at their blistering best. An unapologetic new
album with Grammy winning producer John Congleton at the
helm; it’s souped up and supercharged. It’s exactly where you
want shame to be.
Still in their twenties, the five childhood friends - Charlie Steen,
guitarists Sean Coyle-Smith and Eddie Green, bassist Josh
Finerty and drummer Charlie Forbes - have grown Shame
exponentially, with ambitious sonic ideas and the technical
chops to execute them. Having proved themselves several times
over with legendary live shows and three critically-acclaimed
albums under their belts, Shame went into Cutthroat ready to
create a new Ground Zero.
“This is about who we are,” says Steen. “Our live shows aren’t
performance art - they’re direct, confrontational and raw. That’s
always been the root of us. We live in crazy times. But it’s not
about ‘Poor me.’ It’s about ‘Fuck you’.” Crucial to this incendiary
new outlook was producer John Congleton (St. Vincent, Angel
Olsen). From their initial meeting, Congleton’s no-bullshit
approach became a guiding force to streamline the band’s
ideas.
Stamped throughout with Shame’s trademark sense of humour,
the album takes on the big issues of today and gleefully toys
with them. Casting a merciless eye on themes of conflict and
corruption; hunger and desire; lust, envy and the omnipresent
shadow of cowardice.
Musically, too, the record plays with visceral new ideas. Making
electronic music on tour for fun, Coyle-Smith had previously
seen the loops he was crafting as a separate entity to the things
he wrote for Shame. Then, he realised, maybe they didn’t have
to be. “This time, anything could go if it sounded good and you
got it right,” he says.
The result is an album that revels in the idiosyncrasies of life,
raising an eyebrow and asking the ugly questions that so often
get tactfully brushed over.
“I’m not here to answer the questions, I’m a 27-year-old idiot...”
Steen caveats with a self-effacing chuckle. But the one answer
that Cutthroat gives with a resounding flourish is that, right
now, Shame have never sounded better.