It’s been three years since I attempted to do an album review but if there is one band that will get me to sit down behind my laptop and do one it’s my friends Burnt Tapes. On August the 8th they will release their long awaited second album, the follow up to 2019’s incredible
Never Better (one of my all time favourite albums). The new album is titled New Lungs and being released once again by
Lockjaw Records (UK) and
Wiretap Records (USA), as well as a tape from
Nasty Cut Records (Denmark). Tapes on tape – it’s about time, right?
I feel like I need to address the fact that this review might come across as incredibly biased. These guys have been friends of mine for a long time now, they started out as Burnt Tapes around the same time as I started doing CPRW and we’ve reviewed every EP and album they’ve released, along with countless live shows. I’ve never made it a secret how highly I think of Phil, Pan, Jordan and Tone not just as musicians but as people, so yeah this will probably come across as a really biased review. I’m saying nice things about my friends’ new album, but rest assured that every word I type in this review I really mean and I’m not just buttering up my mates. I’ve had New Lungs on repeat in a dark room where I usually sleep for a couple of months now and I’m excited to share my views on it with you. Let’s take a deep breath and jump right in.
New Lungs begins with the song Crisis Actor. The song starts with a familiar Burnt Tapes tone that has me thinking of Lost In Transit, the final track from Never Better. It almost feels like a continuation or at least a call back, something the band are known for doing. I love this. Crisis Actor eases you into the album with Pan’s vocals over that welcoming riff. Before long the whole band comes in. This song sets the tone for the whole album with its big, emotional build. We then launch into a stretch of the four singles the band released in the run up to the album. Up first is
MOTHERSGUILT. The very first line features a common Burnt Tapes trope – grinding teeth. I immediately got a kick out of this. The song explores the theme of feeling like you’re not meeting other people’s expectations of you and using the guilt that gives you as fuel to keep on going. I feel like that’s something that most of us has gone through at times, making the song hugely relatable. The chorus will no doubt earn some big sing-alongs and feel cathartic for many.
Little Sister was originally released way back in 2023 and gave us a glimpse as to what was coming from the band. Phil takes over lead vocals for this deep and emotional song about a particularly hard and dark time with his mental health that he went through. He tells a story about the journey of reaching a low point and reaching out for help before things get even lower. This is a mid-tempo track with a catchy chorus. The stand out moment on the track however is the guest vocal appearance from Hannah Hermione Greenwood from Creeper on the bridge. This really adds to the emotion of the song. As of yet, Hannah hasn’t joined the band to do this live – maybe at the album launch at the Black Heart in Camden on the
19th of September? That would be cool. Next is the brilliantly titled You Only YOLO Once. This is one of the higher tempo tracks on New Lungs and really showcases the band’s trademark sad boy pop punk moniker. Sonically it’s an upbeat, almost summery-sounding song but when you dig down into Pan’s lyrics you discover a song about his own mental health struggles. The line “every now and then, it hits me like a bullet train” is one I imagine a lot of people listening will find extremely relatable. I know I certainly do. Of course there is another broken teeth reference in the song, because of course there is. I’ve heard that they’re trying to get a dentist sponsorship.
The album’s title track, New Lungs is the fourth and final single from the album. Continuing the more poppy version of their sound, New Lungs once again talks about mental health. The song actually starts out feeling quite hopeful as Pan sings “new lungs set to breathe new seasons, held breath and an unsure sweaty brow, I’m better now, I’m better.” This mood soon changes though as Pan sings about having a toxic relationship with either another person or their own brain and that person/brain and being brought down once again, not knowing who you are anymore. This song features another great chorus and some big hooks that will really pull a live crowd in. Shelf Life Of The Party is another fantastic song title. Phil is back on lead vocal duties and the energy remains. On my first listen to New Lungs this is one of the songs that really stood out to me. It’s about getting older and feeling burnt out, lost, like you’re finished and you’re not the person you used to be. Phil’s vocals bring an intensity to the song that I love and I really hope it becomes a regular in their live set going forward.
Track seven is titled Office On Repeat. On my first listen of New Lungs, my first thought was that this was the album closer as it has a huge, epic ending. There’s still three more bangers to come though and trust me, the closer is an incredible ending for the album. Office On Repeat starts out as a mid-tempo pop punk song talking about the end of a relationship. As we reach the final third of the song, the tempo and melody changes and we get a big emo ending that will get a big reaction from a live crowd. There’s a few moments on this album that do make me think that this has been specifically written with a live crowd reaction in mind and I’m a big fan of when bands do that. The pace is brought right back up on Future Strangers. Have you ever come to a point in your life where it feels like something has hit a road block, you don’t know what comes next and you begin to question everything? That’s what this song is about. I enjoyed the sliver of hope that track gives you as Pan sings “it’ll all make sense in time.” It’s a simple and powerful lyric that works so well in the song.
The penultimate song is named OnlyFriends. The song starts slowly, similar in style to the classic Things Get Weird. Pan sings softly as the song gradually builds up to its big finale. This slow start really adds to the emotion of the song and really pulls you in. There’s no slow start and then bang, you’re in, OnlyFriends builds and builds and takes you with it. When that big moment does finally come in and it hits you, you feel ready to be hit. Fantastic songwriting. There is also a moment in the song when the band becomes the big stadium rock band they deserve to be when they implement a crowd participation clapping section. The tenth and final song is So Long, Sundays. This might be the most ambitious piece of songwriting that Burnt Tapes have ever attempted and of course they pulled it off. A perfect choice to bring the album to an end. This song is about going through all the hard times that happen in your life and eventually finding your way out of the other side. New Lungs is an album that has plenty of down moments, so having this moment of hope at the end is really refreshing. It serves as a great reminder that no matter how hard things can get, sometimes it will get better and it’s always great to be reminded of that. There’s a moment at the end of the song that I won’t spoil for you but it’s something that I never, ever expected to hear on a Burnt Tapes album. I guess they’ve been hanging out at the New Cross Inn for too long now.
It’s been six years since the Burnt Tapes released Never Better and you can really hear the progression the band have made as a band on New Lungs. You can hear a change in their sound but everything you ever loved about the band remains. Daly George from
The Ranch once again did a phenomenal job with the production on the album, he did a fantastic job bring all of these songs to life. New Lungs has been my most anticipated album of the year since the band released Never Better and it did not disappoint. I’m not even that sad that the reworked version of Go Drunk didn’t make the cut, as each song brings something different but it all flows nicely together. It’s an album that can be listened to as an album or as singles. I do feel like each one of these songs could’ve been used as a single. As I said at the start of this, Burnt Tapes are my friends and this could come across as biased, but I truly believe that this is a fantastic album. I would say that if you loved Never Better then this might be a bit of a grower but you’ll soon come to love it just as much, if not more. Well done friends, loving your work.
Burnt Tapes play an album release show with Modern Shakes and Making Friends at the Black Heart in Camden on Friday the 19th of September. You should come to the party. Get your ticket
here.
