Album review: Shit Present – What Still Gets Me

Shit Present are not, it would seem, a band who are adept at striking while the iron glows hot. Arriving a full seven years after the Bristolian trio’s last piece of recorded music – the Misery + Disaster EP, itself the successor to 2015’s eponymous five-track debut – What Still Gets Me is an album that has struggled to twist itself into form in anything like a timely manner. One reason for the delay was that vocalist/guitarist Iona Cairns was required to come to terms with a diagnosis of bipolar-disorder, a condition that favours extremes. Put to music, it seems to work like this: 'I can fucking destroy you or be your best friend,' she sings.

Featuring notes of rage, despair and triumph, this 13-song set finds its equilibrium in music that is well-crafted and often catchy. Despite a band-name that will likely never be spoken by a radio presenter, not to mention track titles such as Fuck It, Unravelling and The Pain, Shit Present, in a sonic sense at least, are not as foreboding as their wrapping might have you believe. At its plentiful best, What Still Gets me recalls strong moments from groups such as Hole and The Muffs – note the pop-perfect jag of the Way I’d Like or Beyond Tonight, to name just two – only with a singer that sounds as if she’s from somewhere near south-western England rather than the equivalent in the United States. This sense of familiarity serves the group well. When Iona sings 'I guess you’ll only tell me no, so I guess I’ll just wait for you to go,' on the well-judged Talking About The Rain, this listener at least was on her side in hoping she’d throw this person, and these people, away without keeping hold of the receipt.

Verdict: 4/5

For fans of: Petrol Girls, Hole, The Muffs

What Still Gets Me is released on May 5 via Specialist Subject