Album review: Movements – RUCKUS!

It feels fitting that Movements kick off RUCKUS! with a track titled You’re One Of Us Now - that opening evocative guitar riff is indoctrinating. Once you start sinking your teeth into what this band has to offer, you rarely come out the other side as anything other than a fan.

On their third full-length album, the South Californian quartet bring flavours of pop-punk, grunge and even modern shoegaze into this sultry yet dark offering. Off the back of its intro track, the airy and submissive Killing Time lands in the ears like a lovesick lullaby, ‘For you I would die, no one can love me like you do,’ vocalist Patrick Miranda scorches with sulky, elongated vowels. Every piece feels present, each word and note feels purposeful.

Many of the tracks on this album swing between frustration and dedication, with Heaven Sent and Tightrope navigating the terrifically nauseating feelings of early love for the softer offerings, with I Hope You Choke delivering on the unforgiving, red-mist anger that the album’s title implies, with group chants and climbing melodies sprawling across a bed of synth.

AMP makes for one of the most lyrically interesting tracks, feeling purposefully confused, bewitched yet annoyed. ‘You wear attention like its perfume,’ sings Patrick, summarising the cocktail of emotions that come with being in a state of cathexis. Waltzing ballad Coeur DAlene, meanwhile, closes things with reverb-y, icy guitar, and it seems as if it almost sums up the last nine tracks, with a dreamy yet low-key solemn energy.

The title of RUCKUS! suggests this album is nothing but noise and chaos, and although it channels elements of free spirited and attitude-fuelled rock, it's far more dressed up and thought-out. It’s a paradoxical smorgasbord of anger and heartache, lust and love. Movements bring the flavours we know and love them for, but still manage to make this new offering feel incredibly fresh.

Verdict: 4/5

For fans of: Teenage Wrist, The Story So Far, Don Broco

RUCKUS! is released on August 18 via Fearless