Stunning second album from Millie and the crew will surprise a few people
The wait for the follow up to their critically acclaimed debut LP Telling Truths, Breaking Ties is nearly over folks. One of the UK’s best live bands over the past few years, have managed to find both the time and more crucially, the money, to deliver a stunning album that will surprise a fair few with it’s maturity and raw power. At last year’s Rebellion Festival it was noticeable that the MMATSU merch table was open for 4 days straight, an open secret purely to raise the funds for this record.
It is much more of a band collaboration this time round, and it is evident that they have grown together during the writing and recording. To write the album, Millie and the band, decamped to an Air BNB in Norfolk, where they shut themselves off from the world. “We weren’t allowed our phones between 9:00am and 4:00pm,” Millie remembers. “We didn’t allow ourselves to contact our significant others until after we’d finished work every day.”
Each member of the band brought a new flavour to the table. “The lyricism and the melody is always mine. I’m very protective of that,” says Millie, who adds that the influence of everyone from Pink and Creeper to Rage Against the Machine, K-Pop, The Specials and the poetry of Scroobius Pip has seeped into the record’s sound. “But to be able to release the reins a little bit sonically was exciting. George is my bassist and her bass lines are really funky. My drummer, Pete Wright, has got the biggest record collection I’ve ever bloody seen. He loves everything from weird soft, folky music, to walls of noise where you can’t hear a damn thing. I’m sitting in rooms with these people who have vastly different understanding of what it is to be eclectic in music and I think that you’ve got some real twists in there that vary from the previous album.”
The sessions came after a long period during which the singer had struggled creatively. She puts the three-year gap between Wake Up, Shut Up, Work and her debut, Telling Truths, Breaking Ties, down to the frantic promotion schedule for the latter, which was released during the pandemic. But Wake Up, Shut Up, Work however finds her refreshed, with a renewed love for music and a revived sense of passion and purpose. “I’m really excited about album three now,” she enthuses. “I haven’t even put out album two and I’m like, let’s do it. Let’s go.”
The addition of Pete Wright on drums appears to have given them another dimension on these 12 songs. There is a little less ska-tinged punk on show. This is a full on rock band, at the peak of their powers, delivering beautifully crafted songs about ugly subjects, whilst retaining their DIY ethos, when really this music should be filling stadiums. Forget Eilish, Swift and Cyrus, this is the most important female singer currently walking the walk. Millie is angry and she wants you to know it. With all the shit currently going on in the world, it’s far too easy to look away and consume sickly sweet pop music and pretend it’s not happening. However, it is happening. Some of it close to home and some of it far away, but MMATSU are not going to let you forget. You only have to follow Manders’ Social Media accounts to know she wears her heart on her sleeve. The things she sings about are important and they are painful. Whether the subject matter is personal or international, you can feel the hurt in her voice. And indeed what a voice it is, her full vocal range captured spectacularly on songs like Me Too and RIP, where I’m reminded of Bonnie Raitt or Ellen Foley.
Outspoken, potty-mouthed, funny and refreshingly frank, it’s an album that tackles mental health and women’s rights, and nails how hard it is just to exist as a citizen of planet earth in 2024. “There are songs about feeling like you’re absolutely insane, literally sitting inside your brain and looking outside of your skull going, I don’t know if I can escape this. There’s some about mental health and there’s a song about me being so shit poor that I can barely afford to eat.”
There’s some real rockers on here too. Me Too comes on like the Foo Fighters in places and there’s some part spoken word vocals, which work incredibly well. There’s still bouncy saxophone and ska interludes scattered throughout the album, like the layers of an onion. Just like an onion they’ll cause you tears too, as the pain expressed in songs like Can I Get Off and Me Too haunt you.
Angry Side finds Millie still haunted by the things her younger self did, as she only connected with the negative, “every name and face of those I’ve hurt, stuck in a loop of self reflection, and I justify the things I’ve done but it was only pain deflection, I had no way of knowing why, I only knew my angry side” delivered in an almost apologetic tone, to whom one can only speculate. It’s a strong opener and sets the tone for the album with some great guitar and sax work. It’s obviously a very personal lyric, but one that screams out emotional growth.
The last single Can I Get Off? is probably the most political, with a capital P, song the band have written. Anyone who has witnessed any of Millie’s very emotional postings about the plight of the Palestinian people, will not be surprised that she’s chosen to write a song about the current political landscape and at the same time call out the hypocrisy of “boys in bands, who shout out hate for the Tories on their stages every night”. It won’t win them many friends one suspects, but then again who wants to be friends with racists? If anyone doubts their “punk credentials”, then this should get them their visas stamped by the gatekeepers. Sadly protest songs seem to be unfashionable outside of feminist/LGBTQ+/Anarcho circles these days, with only the likes of Bob Vylan, The Meffs and Meryl Streek prepared to ruffle some feathers.
Fun Sponge is another stormer. Millie explains. “I researched many different variants of party pooper, but it was also a piss take of when women get enraged and we’re told we are the vacuum in the room, even if our feelings are valid.”
There’s other personal relationship moments with Rebound, One That Got Away and Halloween, which is a departure with it’s haunting cello and Kate Bush-esque vocals, culminating with a crashing crescendo fully demonstrating Millie’s full range.
Me Too tackles sexual abuse and the whole systematic discrimination women face when reporting it. Having seen Bikini Kill recently after nearly 30 years, I’m depressingly reminded that very little has changed in that time. As a father of boys, I try to do my part by bringing then up to be respectful, but sadly I know that there are others don’t place that much store by it.
If there’s a prize for the most infectious bassline of 2024, then George will take the accolade for Pressure. It’s a veritable earworm.
Threadbare and Windows close the album. The former covers the period when Millie was struggling to heat, feed and clothe herself and has another quirky spoken delivery, deliciously underpinned by some more saxophone. The closer Windows is another sax driven power track, where the upbeat music disguises the downbeat lyrics. Another one to scratch below the surface on.
You can pre-order the album here ahead of it’s release on 2nd Aug. It comes as both CD and several different vinyl permutations.
This is an impressive body of work, that deserves to be heard by a wider audience. The Music Venue Trust have been pushing for a levy on ticket prices for arena shows, to support the grassroots music industry. I’d go one step further and say that all touring US artists must have homegrown UK talent as their supporting acts.
WAKE UP, SHUT UP, WORK | TRACK LIST
- Angry Side
- Shut Your Mouth
- Me Too
- Fun Sponge
- Windows
- R.I.P.
- Halloween
- Rebound
- One That Got Away (album version)
- Threadbare
- Can I Get Off?
- Pressure
And you can also hear these songs for yourself on their autumn tour.
OCTOBER
Thu 24 BRIGHTON Patterns
Fri 25 SOUTHAMPTON 1865
Sat 26 HIGH WYCOMBE Arts Centre
Sun 27 BEDFORD Esquires
Thu 31 BIRMINGHAM Actress & Bishop
NOVEMBER
Fri 01 BRISTOL Thekla
Sat 02 EXETER Cavern
Sun 03 SHEFFIELD Yellow Arch Studios
Wed 06 HULL New Adelphi
Thu 07 NEWCASTLE Cluny 1
Fri 08 MANCHESTER Club Academy
Sat 09 NOTTINGHAM Rescue Room
Sat 16 NORWICH Waterfront
Tickets are available from www.millie-manders.com and the venues.
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