Millie Manders and the Shutup will release their sophomore album ‘Wake Up, Shut Up, Work’ on 2nd August. They are arguably one of the greatest live acts the UK has ever produced and having seen them four times I can attest to that! Their first album ‘Telling Truths, Breaking Ties’ was an exquisite debut, how will the new one compare? Read on to find out! The new album kicks off with “Angry Side” which was issued as a single earlier this year. It stays closer to the band’s root ska punk sound and Millie had this to say about it “I guess, a letter from my teenage self, apologising for being so angry and wanting to burn down the world. I had a lot going on back then and I hid behind bravado a lot. I suppose it’s also me telling my younger self that it’s OK to have been that angry when I went through a bunch of trauma that I couldn’t process well enough to deal with it all. I was a kid.” The song perfectly encapsulates the fiery and purposeful passion that Millie possesses. The next track is “Shut Your Mouth” which showcases how the band can move across so many styles and genres, this is full-on punky metal and no one can do sarcasm, anger, and humour in a lyric as well as Millie can. This was a single last year and the chorus hook stays with you and has you repeating the “shut your mouth” line regularly in your head, well I think it was always in my head, or did I sing out loud at work? There are some sublime punk riffs on “Me Too” that take down the misogyny of the #metoo perpetrators, this song hits the target flawlessly. Lyrics like “Make her feel like she’s the one on trial / They say that she had tempted him / Said; ‘Asking for it, weren’t you though?” are exceptionally brilliant. Despite the song’s titular global movement, in 2024 less than 2% of rape victims in the UK ever get justice in a court. Millie says this of the track “For people who have been raped or abused, I want them to know that they’re not weak and it wasn’t their fault, and even if they didn’t get justice, they’ve been heard.” There is a ska pop punk feel to “Fun Sponge”. I have often used the epithet of energy vampire for people with the ability to suck all the life and fun out of others, now I will be using fun sponge. “Fun Sponge” will be even better in a live show. The instrumentation on “Windows” makes you want to dance crazily around the room, which is what I did. In the verses, Millie shows just how good she is at writing ace lyrics that might also stand up as poetry. There is a supremely well-pulled-together 70s pop-rock vibe on “RIP” which shows just how versatile this astonishingly great band has become. The bass alone is worth the listen.
The opening guitar on “Halloween” draws you in oh so delicately to what is essentially a modern power ballad of lost love. I can imagine this being a real audience pleaser in a live show, a time to get your lighters and phones in the air. Millie’s vocals are tender, emotional, and quite frankly gorgeous on this one. The strings add so much depth to a sublime and magnificent ballad. Live favourite “Rebound” is next and it rocks like an absolute bastard, try and listen to this and not sing along, I bet you can’t! It is a great critique of someone who clearly cannot get over their ex. The simple venom in the lines “Saying you’re over your ex now, ex now. You’re ready to move on to something new’ But they’re all you ever talk about
When you’re here with me. Might think I wanna hear about it, But you’re boring me” is simple and so very effective. Fans of the band will know, and love, “One That Got Away” which is simply a song that packs far more punch than Tyson Fury. “Threadbare” keeps the tempo of the album switched to number 11 and this will, I am sure, be a song in which Millie ventures into the crowd at her gigs.
On the classy and punky “Can I Get Off” Millie takes aim at how the mainstream media and so many people in the world have stood by while the Israel Defence Force commits acts against the Palestinian people that are tantamount to genocide. But she doesn’t direct her venomous and righteous rancour only at what is going on in Gaza she talks of Chad, Ethiopia, Congo, China, Sudan, and the refugees that risk their lives to cross the channel. It riles me that so many people have fallen for the “you can’t criticise the Israeli government because it is anti-semitic” line. It is not, I despise what the Israeli government is doing, but I don’t hate Jewish people. In exactly the same way I despise everything about Hamas, but not all Palestinians are Hamas. This conflict has been around for years and did not just begin when Hamas attacked Israel on October 7th last year. Millie takes on the “if you are against Israel you must support Hamas” line head-on in the lyric “Am I siding with Hamas? Are you gonna ask that one again?” I am 100% behind her on this. Millie talks of white fragility and our apparent need to side with aggressors because there is money in weapons, oil, and gold. The UK government is complicit with so much of the world’s oppression and killing, it needs to stop. In the song’s coda, she calls on the “boys in bands” to speak out, rather than be quiet and worry about losing followers. If your followers (and I include mine in that) are too cowardly to say anything while people are being murdered then we don’t fucking need them! Shouting “Fuck The Tories” at gigs is fine, but it isn’t enough. Most people who follow bands probably hate the Tories but are uninformed or scared when it comes to other conflicts in the world. Millie says this of the song, “The Western world is privileged because it has pillaged resources from everyone else in the world. We need to unlearn what we know and recognise the suffering people are going through as a result of our greed. “Can I Get Off? is an outpouring of my frustrations about that“. The album ends with “Pressure” which had me thinking of the Clash, but fronted by Millie Manders. This album will, deservedly, be a contender for album of the year in so many publications.
You really need to buy this album and to make it easy for you I have given you eight preorder outlet links below. Click on any of them and get yourself sorted for getting your hands on a brilliant album early next month!
Amazon, Banquet, Cool Discs, Crash Records, Resident, Rough Trade, Sister Ray and Truck.
The picture above gives details of the autumn tour in support of the new album. Be There or be square. I hope to see you in Hull on 6th November!
The double A-Side release in April of “Can I Get Off” and “Angry Side” targetted raising funds for the non-profit organisation Mercy Without Limits whose mission is “To educate and empower women and children by enabling them to have an effective and positive role in constructing a better society.” They began by working in Syria but now work in many areas of conflict in the Middle- east, including Gaza. Pre order the album and if you can please make a donation to Mercy Without Limits .
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