MY LITTLE SECRET: LIFE

Credits to www.lifeband.co.uk and Josh Moore

Before I say anything else, let me say this: LIFE are clever – clever in a way that seems to have been lost to a generation that seems to have been stuck in a musical inertia. This band needs to be shared because I feel that this period of calm is about to come to an abrupt end, starting with the revolt of youth in the best way they know how: through music.

LIFE is a band that is almost post-punk revival, fuelled with a no-fucks-given attitude and a venom for the world’s political landscape that is set to thrive on youth’s dissatisfaction with the society they must contend with. If you are thoroughly pissed off with the way your future has been decided, then here is your soundtrack.

Credits to www.lifeband.co.uk and Josh Moore

LIFE are a four-piece band, aptly describing themselves as “two brothers and four best friends” hailing from Hull. See, as someone from the area of Hull, to me, this is fantastic. To have such a prevalent, upcoming band on your doorstep, raised in your area, seeing what you see and knowing what you know, gives a sense of pride for the ever unfairly condemned North. It’s important that like their equally disenchanted musical predecessors, such as the Sex Pistols, Joy Division and The Clash, the band has no airs and graces, no pretence, no silver spoon lodged firmly in their mouths.

The first I had ever heard of LIFE was in November, 2016 in a sweaty O2 Academy venue in Sheffield. They were supporting Slaves – another incredible band with punk overtones that has the ability to shake the foundations of an entire room with a single chord. Yet, funnily enough, it was LIFE that first had me mesmerised. There was an ability from frontman “Mez” to grip the crowd and clamp down on their attention. With his deep, effortlessly indifferent voice and his stage presence, he and the band had the crowd chanting “YORK-SHIRE! YORK-SHIRE!” on demand. Some of you might even have been there.

Let me give you a sense of what they do. Perhaps their greatest single, in my opinion, to date is Euromillions, which happens to be their latest release – a little aperitif for the upcoming album this year. I heard this song when they performed it that night. I remember Mez looked down at the audience through his fringe drenched with sweat and said, “This song is about a cunt… a cunt called Donald Trump…”. The crowd erupted. For a moment, the audience’s political unrest bled out in yells of approval on that cold night in Sheffield. Now that is what I’m talking about.

Credits to www.lifeband.co.uk and Josh Moore

The meaning behind Euromillions, if it wasn’t already plain enough, is best described by LIFE themselves: ““Euromillions” was scrawled in the aftermath of the Brexit vote. It’s an angry song about the fragility of democracy and how social media is paving the way for soundbite and scare tactic politics.”

I love this song because of how it lashes out. It’s acerbic. It’s scathing. We need that. In a society now too scared to offend, too scared to say what we mean, this is the catalyst we need for change. While they’re still up-and-coming talent, just give them a listen. With their other songs equal in their quality and in that same, enlivening vein, such as the I Knew I Was A Rat EP (not to mention the rest), you will instantly be compelled to hear more.

I’ve given you a head’s up. Be a part of it.