THE SHUTUP SHOW THEIR ANGRY SIDE ON BRAND NEW SOPHOMORE ALBUM ‘WAKE UP, SHUT UP, WORK’

ALBUM REVIEW | MILLIE MANDERS & THE SHUTUP – WAKE UP, SHUT UP, WORK by Craig Harston 4/5

Four years after their debut, 2020’s ‘Telling Truths, Breaking Ties‘, Millie Manders And The Shutup are back and angrier at the world than ever with a visceral bunch of songs with ‘Wake Up, Shut Up, Work‘ out Friday 2nd August.

Single ‘Angry Side’ kicks the album off, highlighting how our own anxieties can often get the best of us and how it’s all too easy to hide our true feelings behind a facade. It’s a great pop punk song with choruses that go absolutely huge and an excellent bridge. ‘Shut Your Mouth’ meanwhile is a ferocious take on removing toxic relationships from your life. It’s got a great bassline from Georgina Boreham overlayed with Millie’s almost-rapping vocals and the breakdown features a truly terrifying laugh from the singer (in the best way possible).

Millie Manders has never been afraid to tackle some pretty serious subject matter and third track, ‘Me Too‘, does exactly this. Focussing on the ongoing problem of sexual violence towards women and how the system is totally screwed up in that often the women get the blame;

“It doesn’t matter what we wear, it doesn’t matter how we speak, the conversation’s still the same, you blame the girl for being weak”

It hits hard and finds the band playing some of their heaviest music to date, with Millie screaming the final line to the last chorus.The next track ‘Fun Sponge’ returns to dealing with difficult people in our lives, this time those people who suck the fun out of everything (think the ‘energy vampire’, Colin Robinson, from the What We Do In The Shadows series). Featuring plenty of horns, it’s a very catchy number and the bridge brilliantly features Millie reeling off every other term for these kind of people!

The second half of the album finds the ‘romance trilogy’ – three very different sounding songs about three different perspectives on romantic encounters. ‘Halloween’ is first up, an excellent ballad about a chance tryst on the titular holiday a year ago. It has some of the best lyrics on the album as Millie laments lost love; “Autumn feels so much colder now, I don’t get to hear your laugh, I can’t forget the way you touched me, the bonfire in your arms”, showcasing her phenomenal vocal range, with the closing bars of the song featuring soaring guitars and violins! ‘Rebound’, as the title suggests, is about not wanting to be someone else’s rebound when they’re not over their ex. It’s a bouncy punk rock song that’s already gone down well in a live setting and it’s a great one to sing along to! Rounding out the trilogy is ‘The One That Got Away A.V.’ and again is about exactly what it says on the tin. It finds the guitars, drums, horns and vocals coming together perfectly to create a pretty relentless punk rock tune.

Returning to more serious subject matter, ‘Threadbare’ takes time to focus on the cost of living crisis, featuring another great bassline, an excellent guitar riff courtesy of Joe Quigley throughout the song and some urgent vocals from Millie. It’s followed up by single ‘Can I Get Off?’, which is arguably the best of a great bunch, putting the state of the world in the spotlight and how urgently we need to make changes and not just pay lip-service to things we say we’ll do to make the world a better place.

‘Wake Up, Shut Up, Work’ is ultimately a great sophomore effort from Millie Manders And The Shutup, showcasing a band that is more self-assured than ever as they take on the world.

The album releases on 2nd August – the day before the band play the Empress Ballroom at this years Rebellion Festival, so you’ll likely be the first to hear many of these songs live for the first time if you’re planning to catch them there. Physical versions are available to pre-order now, including a very limited edition white with pink and blue splatter vinyl variant, with £5 of each sale of these going to Trans Youth charity.