Asylums - Wet Dream Fanzine EP

In these three brisk but brutal tracks, Asylums draw a line in the filth. On one side there’s an army of hyperventilating twenty-somethings clutching a Fugazi album behind slap bracelets… on the other a wall of Apple logos illuminating kids who’ve never once paid for a song. The content here isn’t dated though; instead those records which sounded good 15-years ago are dusted off and reimagined rather intelligently. They’re loyal songs, designed to invoke your GCSE hangovers without retreading too much old ground.

There’s a frenzied “Popscene” nod to the title track with some choppier R.E.M. moments in the vocals that call out "wet dream fanzine/there’s a melting ice cream/running down your thigh". It all appears teenage and cheeky, composed with an understanding of what makes an anthem, but it’s actually a bit of a feminist tune, wrapped up in a bit of pop art. You know it’ll be fun live. These are the songs a lot of people grew up listening to, that we all wanted to write when we were in bands, done now in glorious Technicolor by Southend’s saviours of guitar fuzz.