University are a bunch of noisy young punks from Crewe, the nation’s most interconnected nowhere. If I understand correctly the name is sardonic: when all their friends left for higher education they stayed, putting their energy into the band. Resisting the urge to ride the rails, a degree of insularity and focus has paid off in a sharp math-punk assault with its own identity. Their debut McCartney, It’ll be OK opens with about ten seconds of distorted and enthusiastic yelling down the phone, which seems as fitting an introduction as any to its charms. Their energy and curiosity is infectious, their songs fizz with immediacy. It’s not entirely clear what they’re doing but the condensed arrangements and wild guitar pulls you along.
The first tune, ‘Massive Twenty One Pilots Tattoo’ gets its name from a band discussion about what the worst ever tattoo would be. Moving smoothly between calmer melodic passages and speeding squalls of noise the lyrics are a vague anxiety blur. I think it’s fair to say the band’s driving force is more musical than lyrical. The album’s title is taken from a misheard lyric to ‘GTA Online’: “in my garden I’ll feel okay”, when you can make them out the words tend to the opaque and trying to untangle them is probably to somewhat miss the point. The band claim this material is more emotionally diverse but it can be hard to gauge what level of sincerity or sarcasm they’re operating at.
Their debut Track Title EP concluded with a number called ‘History Of Iron Maiden pt.2’ and they must like that idea because here they add parts 1 and 0.5 to the saga although none appear to bear any relation to one another or, indeed, Iron Maiden. On the other hand, ‘(Part1)’ is a multi-part ten-minute epic and they do have a guy called Eddie who just sits playing video games as part of their live show. ‘History Of Iron Maiden (pt.0.5)’ breaks with their usual racket and closes the album out with a bleepy instrumental that sounds like it was made on a cheap electric organ – or even Eddie’s games console.
The earlier EP was impressive but they’ve noticeably pushed themselves further here, achieving something sharper, more their own. Recorded live in the studio it shows them to be a fiercely tight band, the bold choice of Kwes Darko (slowthai, Denzel Curry) as producer is another hint to the scale of their ambition. I’d be doing them a disservice were I to suggest they were a radical paradigm shift or in any way likely to mount a vigorous assault on mainstream sensibilities, but they are at least having some success in making something thrilling of their own.
