Album review: Gen And The Degenerates – Anti-Fun Propaganda

What do you do when society is rotting before your eyes? The answer, according to Gen And The Degenerates, is to dance through it – while you still can, anyway. Despite the undercurrent of anxiety running through their debut album, the Liverpool quintet are determined to have as much fun as possible, all while justifying the hype that’s been building up behind them.

There’s plenty to enjoy about this band’s ultra-cool garage rock stylings, but their greatest strength is how much personality they’ve poured into this record. It’s equal parts funny, pithy, wry and sharp, whether singer Genevieve Glynn-Reeves is laughing at social media addicts fighting to create 'the world’s most progressive take' on That’s Enough Internet For Today, music industry trends on BIG HIT SINGLE, or taking aim at companies making life boring on the title-track (‘Why’d you take the sugar out? We liiiiiike the sugar!’). Girls, meanwhile, is a feisty, fun and unabashedly queer celebration of women’s quirks, calling out the men who undermine them with lashings of wit and a rippling bassline to boot.

Then again, Gen isn’t just a genius lyricist but an incredibly versatile vocalist, whose voice lurches from a warm, jazzy register to speak-singing and back again, even into a babyish squeal. Indeed, the gloriously silly Post-Cool sees them deliver their satirical lines in a voice so close to Wet Leg’s plummy tones it’s uncanny. She shines brightest, however, on the gorgeous six-and-a-half minute closer Jude’s Song, a tribute to their late aunt that riffs beautifully on The Beatles’ classic Hey Jude, which Gen hated growing up.

It’s a devastating finale to the record that arrives like a gut-wrenchingly sad twist in a sitcom, but it’s just as instantly memorable as the songs that came before. This is how you do a debut album.

4/5

For fans of: Crawlers, Sleater-Kinney, Bikini Kill

Anti-Fun Propaganda is released on February 23 via Marshall