Scottish ‘misery-punks’ Goodbye Blue Monday dropped a surprise new release in May, an EP full of stripped-back and slowed-down ‘reimaginings’ of previous material, as well as one new song. The songs were all recorded in one-take (hence the EP title) and after additional instrumentation and backing vocals were added, were mixed and mastered at home in the time of Coronavirus. Considering all that, I think the EP sounds great; yes, the songs are raw and stripped-back, but I think it works in foregrounding the vulnerabilities and distress calls in these tracks. The disclaimer on the EP reads ‘sadder versions of sad songs’ and that couldn’t be more true. I reviewed the ‘Misery Punk Ruined My Life’ EP a couple of years back; it’s one of my favourites of the Fest-punk sub-genre that I have heard in recent years and it’s a real revelation to hear two of the tracks from that EP as backed only by a piano and acoustic guitar.

It’s kind of like what Off With Their Heads have done with a couple of recent releases, with their acoustic reworkings of old material. However, I call these Goodbye Blue Monday songs reimaginings rather than simply re-recordings given how their DIY punk sing-a-longs are fundamentally repositioned in a new light. In particular, I love the new version of “Misery Punk Ruined My Life”; previously a slice of edgy, anthemic and gritty pop-punk, it is now presented as a sombre piano ballad. Some lines that I read before as more tongue-in-cheek and self-deprecating now come off as straightforward despair. “Take Your Pills” (from their first EP ‘The Sickness, The Shame’) is equally great, I would say, as transformed from rowdy punk banger to this stripped down document of anguish; this is a gut-wrenching track about those living with mental health issues and having medicalised responses forced onto them. To push away those returning dark thoughts and racing pulse, there is the persistent internal/external voice of ‘take your pills’. The lines towards the end of the song are visceral and almost get too much at times, notably the great lines, “You raging cunt of disappointment/Suspended in an air of discontent/A dying fly in the ointment/Sucked down the drain of supplements”. By the time lead singer/songwriter Graham has got to the end, the anguished howl of “If this is how it’s gonna be this year/Then let this year be the last” sticks in the mind long after the song has ended.

While all these are memorable reinventions, the best song on the EP for me is the new one “Don’t Tell Me”, which is similarly acoustic but played in a somewhat more uplifting and less sombre tone, with the chorus notably more toe-tapping and sing-a-long. The energetic piano work does wonders here in capturing the sense of urgency and desperation; I really want to hear more folk-punk make use of the piano or at least other instruments outside of the acoustic guitar (Sam Russo’s recent LP is great too in this regard). The woah-ohs and handclaps combine in a kind of gospel-like chorus here. The content, meanwhile, reflects on the intimate workings of a relationship while facing mental health struggles and the significant other being exhausted with the everyday battles. Really insightful and evocative, brought to life in this format (although I would like to hear a full-band version of this). It’s the way it’s told; with lines like this one of many memorable ones: “Lying next to you when you feel like a stranger/With your arms around me, waiting for my mood to change but I can still feel your tears running slowly down my back/I’m aware, can’t understand during a panic attack”. The song feels apt in the time of corona, as ultimately one that expresses a deep desire to connect and to express one’s true feelings to the significant other that can’t otherwise be expressed, as drawn out at the end of the song: “I might have a blank stare but I will still try to meet your eyes/Even if I pull away I know that you will pull me through/The blood on the floor comes from a heart that truly loves you”. It’s as open-hearted folk-punk tune as I have heard in a long ime, calling to mind Paul Baribeau as much as Off With Their Heads “Clear The Air”.

If you haven’t yet checked out Goodbye Blue Monday, the self-proclaimed “most dangerous band in Scottish pop-punk”, you need to get on it and fast. And if you already have, why not delve into new depths of misery punk with some ‘one-take woefuls’…

Check out the EP here: https://makethatatakerecords.bandcamp.com/album/self-indulgent-one-take-woefuls-ep

Dave Brown