Out of Love – So Far, So Good
Release Date: 8th April 2021
Label: Despotz Records
Bandcamp
Genre: Punk, Punk Rock.
FFO: Nirvana, Green Day, The Clash.
Review By: Séamus Patrick Burke
Timing is everything, so it’s probably not the best idea to start a new project when the world is ending.
But then again, when has that ever stopped anyone?
It’s easy to forget how fragmented punk releases could be back in the day. Because of the chaotic nature of the underground scene (on both sides of the pond), you’d see a flurry of singles and EP’s from bands so ephemeral that they’d have already broken up by the time they had enough songs for a full release, so you staple them together in a compilation and call that an album for lack of a better option. This is how the discographies of Minor Threat and Operation Ivy got reduced down to single discs. 13 Songs by Fugazi is just that; thirteen songs from their first two EP’s put together onto an LP. Even early Green Day is guilty of this, compiling their early Lookout! Records material onto the amusingly titled 1,039 Smoothed Out Slappy Hours.
Those bands, however, didn’t form at the cusp of a global pandemic. Kind of hard to take the stage when the stage is closed, y’know? London punk band Out Of Love made the best of a bad situation, however. They opened things up with their I Am Not Me EP, followed up shortly by their Funny Feeling EP. And just as the stages are starting to open back up, here they are with So Far, So Good, a compilation of those two EP’s with a handful of new songs to boot.
In terms of length, brevity is definitely the soul of wit when it comes to Out Of Love. All told, So Far, So Good clocks in at a scant thirty minutes. There’s enough energy packed in here to keep you going, however. This is definitely an album that demands to be swallowed whole. The songs from I Am Not Me open things up before flowing into the Funny Feeling material. This is our first time listening to this overall, and I can only imagine the punk rock blue balls having to stop after “My Perfect World” on the original listen.
Out Of Love’s footing is firmly in punk, with hard-hitting drums and sing-along choruses. They make nods to nineties alternative, however, with more dissonant guitar trickling in amongst the revelry. That said, we must politely ask that they use other guitar effects besides the chorus pedal. It gets kind of old when it’s the only one you hear.
The new songs are going to be the big attraction here, and they certainly show more growth and dimension when compared to the opening material. Considering the band’s touring debut was held up because of COVID, that makes “Bedbound” very ironic with the lyrics: “I don’t wanna leave my room/I wanna live in bed.” Bad news, buddy. You may have gotten your wish in the worst way. “Sniffin Glue” is classic punk subject matter. “Pity” and album closer “Kill Song” both have tons of energy and embraces the really dissonant parts of the band’s sound towards the end.
Out Of Love is a band that demands to be seen live, and we’re happy the band is finally getting the opportunity. So Far, So Good is a long overdue, proper introduction to this group that shows lots of room for growth and potential. Here’s hoping the band finally gets the chance to show us what they got. 
(3.5 / 5)
