The Note's best ear for rock, Niall Fitzgerald, dives into Fat White Family's latest record, Serfs Up!
Fat White Family has returned with a new album, Serfs Up!, an endearing effort that sees the group add a lushness to their sound and a delicacy to their rhythm, while maintaining its signature ability to make your skin crawl with an otherworldly sound. Conceived in Sheffield, rather than the band’s old HQ of London, it is the band’s first release since 2016’s already cultish classic Songs For Our Mothers, a Motorik-driven monolith of a record. It, however, saw the band eaten alive by the music press, as many publications sought to reduce the band to faux-socialist shock mongers who were merely out for a reaction.
Serfs Up!, on the other hand, has been garnering lavish, enthusiastic praise from the press. As a longtime fan of the band, some of the praise has seemed suspiciously enthusiastic. In a perfect world, one would hope that the ramped up attention on the band is solely because of the quality of the music...but one could ponder if it's due to the band beginning to play the game a bit. They’ve signed onto Domino Records, while much of their previous work was self released. They’ve been spun on BBC playlists alongside many of the same artists that they have slagged off in the past. They’ve done interviews with BBC Radio 1’s Matt Wilkinson, who typically reserves those spots to people like Tame Impala and Arctic Monkeys. Of course, it would be harsh to judge a band negatively for advancing its career. But the Fat Whites have built a reputation on being outsiders, on being anti-careerists, on slagging off bands. They can no longer play that “outsiders” card. While still musically on the fringes (they sound like no one else in the world on this record), they are now culturally in the thick of things. Rave reviews from The Guardian will do that to you.
But this is still the same band who just last year told Pitchfork to crawl back up Mac Demarco’s asshole. So who cares if they’re selling out; they’re still provocative, still brilliant, and still the best band in Britain.
The northern city of Sheffield informs the album on a holistic level. Lead singer Lias Saoudi and his younger brother Nathan, the keyboardist, moved up north shortly after 2016’s Songs For Our Mothers. Peckham, the band’s birthplace, had priced them out. London was too full of traps for an already hedonistic bunch to be spending their time. “I like it where I am right now/I never want to go back South” croons Lias on the album’s standout and bound-to-be-classic, "Rock Fishes." This sort of reflection, bridled with a sense of optimism and hope rarely heard lyrically from the group in prior releases, runs throughout the album. "Oh Sebastian," almost a lullaby tune, sees Lias addressing the fictional Sebastian. “Yes it’s going to take energy and it’s going to take time/But I got this feeling in my gut, that you’ve barely arrived." Lias might be talking to himself here. Sheffield clearly represents a new beginning for the band.
Lias and Nathan Saoudi penned ‘Feet’ is a throwback to the frantic and urgent nature of Songs For Our Mothers, while sonically sounding like the James Bond theme song on high quality speed. “Can you count it sideways, to that other realm/Can you take me up there, can you take the helm?” pleads a desperate Lias. "Feet" would be a top 40 hit on Billboard, if we were all in Hell.
"Fringe Runner" is the banger of the bunch. A pumping hip hop rhythm, Motown bass licks, and Lias’s most sexy, seductive, and skin crawling vocal take of the entire album, maybe of the group’s entire back catalogue. His pleading of “Please don’t tell me that you think it’s enough” just prior to orchestral stabs is repulsive, but repulsive in a way that forces curiosity. It’s like hearing someone give up on their most sincere dreams.
"I Believe in Something Better" and "Bobby’s Boyfriend" come out of the rich history of Sheffield electro-synth music. They both sound like The Human League, if The Human League were on a bad quaalude experience. Both tunes suck you into their world, an apocalyptic one at best. “Bobby’s Boyfriend,” in particular, is reminiscent of grimy, trudging Fat White classics "I Am Mark E Smith" and "Who Shot Lee Oswald."
"Vagina Dentata" was unlistenable when I heard it first, but 3 days later, it sounded charming. A piano drenched in reverb runs throughout, and Lias tells the listener that "It’s everything you’ve ever wanted, to become/But did not, have the courage, to be." It’s a tune indicative of the very nature of the group; don't quite get it on the first 10 listens, and by the 11th, it’s a belter.
"Rock Fishes," "Kim’s Sunsets," and "When I Leave" are also standouts. The latter, in particular, is going to be the best song to hear live out of any on the record. It’s drone-y, with Gregorian chants panned out across the mix, all held together by clashing guitar lines that thunder in the low end. Surely, the "Touch The Leather" of Serfs Up!. The music video (one of three, the others being "Feet" and "Tastes Good With The Money") is a visual triumph for the group, and stands among their best, behind only the Tim Noble-directed video for "Whitest Boy On The Beach" off Songs For Our Mothers. With "Rock Fishes," the band finally nails its effort at 21st century sleaze-country. It is their most masterful and unique effort yet, from a production standpoint. It will be a charming number to hear in an intimate, acoustic setting. "Kim’s Sunsets" rides a poppy bass-line to the end of the world, as Lias duels on vocals with guitarist and group mastermind Saul Adamczewski.
Serfs Up! is a heart-warming return to form for the Fat Whites. It should be viewed not necessarily as superior to their prior body of work, but as a leap into new territory. As less urgent and paranoid, and more joyful and endearing. It is the band on ketamine, downers, and exotic cocktails, rather than heroin, cocaine, and Buckfast. More lounge exotica crooning, less screaming and writhing. It’s the work of a band who, though no longer outsiders, remains uniquely on the fringes, set to break the door down if they so desire.
Serfs Up!, on the other hand, has been garnering lavish, enthusiastic praise from the press. As a longtime fan of the band, some of the praise has seemed suspiciously enthusiastic. In a perfect world, one would hope that the ramped up attention on the band is solely because of the quality of the music...but one could ponder if it's due to the band beginning to play the game a bit. They’ve signed onto Domino Records, while much of their previous work was self released. They’ve been spun on BBC playlists alongside many of the same artists that they have slagged off in the past. They’ve done interviews with BBC Radio 1’s Matt Wilkinson, who typically reserves those spots to people like Tame Impala and Arctic Monkeys. Of course, it would be harsh to judge a band negatively for advancing its career. But the Fat Whites have built a reputation on being outsiders, on being anti-careerists, on slagging off bands. They can no longer play that “outsiders” card. While still musically on the fringes (they sound like no one else in the world on this record), they are now culturally in the thick of things. Rave reviews from The Guardian will do that to you.
But this is still the same band who just last year told Pitchfork to crawl back up Mac Demarco’s asshole. So who cares if they’re selling out; they’re still provocative, still brilliant, and still the best band in Britain.
The northern city of Sheffield informs the album on a holistic level. Lead singer Lias Saoudi and his younger brother Nathan, the keyboardist, moved up north shortly after 2016’s Songs For Our Mothers. Peckham, the band’s birthplace, had priced them out. London was too full of traps for an already hedonistic bunch to be spending their time. “I like it where I am right now/I never want to go back South” croons Lias on the album’s standout and bound-to-be-classic, "Rock Fishes." This sort of reflection, bridled with a sense of optimism and hope rarely heard lyrically from the group in prior releases, runs throughout the album. "Oh Sebastian," almost a lullaby tune, sees Lias addressing the fictional Sebastian. “Yes it’s going to take energy and it’s going to take time/But I got this feeling in my gut, that you’ve barely arrived." Lias might be talking to himself here. Sheffield clearly represents a new beginning for the band.
Lias and Nathan Saoudi penned ‘Feet’ is a throwback to the frantic and urgent nature of Songs For Our Mothers, while sonically sounding like the James Bond theme song on high quality speed. “Can you count it sideways, to that other realm/Can you take me up there, can you take the helm?” pleads a desperate Lias. "Feet" would be a top 40 hit on Billboard, if we were all in Hell.
"Fringe Runner" is the banger of the bunch. A pumping hip hop rhythm, Motown bass licks, and Lias’s most sexy, seductive, and skin crawling vocal take of the entire album, maybe of the group’s entire back catalogue. His pleading of “Please don’t tell me that you think it’s enough” just prior to orchestral stabs is repulsive, but repulsive in a way that forces curiosity. It’s like hearing someone give up on their most sincere dreams.
"I Believe in Something Better" and "Bobby’s Boyfriend" come out of the rich history of Sheffield electro-synth music. They both sound like The Human League, if The Human League were on a bad quaalude experience. Both tunes suck you into their world, an apocalyptic one at best. “Bobby’s Boyfriend,” in particular, is reminiscent of grimy, trudging Fat White classics "I Am Mark E Smith" and "Who Shot Lee Oswald."
"Vagina Dentata" was unlistenable when I heard it first, but 3 days later, it sounded charming. A piano drenched in reverb runs throughout, and Lias tells the listener that "It’s everything you’ve ever wanted, to become/But did not, have the courage, to be." It’s a tune indicative of the very nature of the group; don't quite get it on the first 10 listens, and by the 11th, it’s a belter.
"Rock Fishes," "Kim’s Sunsets," and "When I Leave" are also standouts. The latter, in particular, is going to be the best song to hear live out of any on the record. It’s drone-y, with Gregorian chants panned out across the mix, all held together by clashing guitar lines that thunder in the low end. Surely, the "Touch The Leather" of Serfs Up!. The music video (one of three, the others being "Feet" and "Tastes Good With The Money") is a visual triumph for the group, and stands among their best, behind only the Tim Noble-directed video for "Whitest Boy On The Beach" off Songs For Our Mothers. With "Rock Fishes," the band finally nails its effort at 21st century sleaze-country. It is their most masterful and unique effort yet, from a production standpoint. It will be a charming number to hear in an intimate, acoustic setting. "Kim’s Sunsets" rides a poppy bass-line to the end of the world, as Lias duels on vocals with guitarist and group mastermind Saul Adamczewski.
Serfs Up! is a heart-warming return to form for the Fat Whites. It should be viewed not necessarily as superior to their prior body of work, but as a leap into new territory. As less urgent and paranoid, and more joyful and endearing. It is the band on ketamine, downers, and exotic cocktails, rather than heroin, cocaine, and Buckfast. More lounge exotica crooning, less screaming and writhing. It’s the work of a band who, though no longer outsiders, remains uniquely on the fringes, set to break the door down if they so desire.
