Released to coincide with their recent appearance on the Pavilion stage at Rebellion 2019 ‘Singing Our Souls’ is the second EP from Kid Klumsy the Coalville based five-piece who like to mix metal with punk and feature Weab ex-singer with Dirtbox Disco on lead vocals.

It still doesn’t feel quite right writing “ex singer with Dirtbox Disco” after Weab’s name but having seemingly not been happy fronting the band for quite some time at least here on the six tracks that make up ‘Singing Our Souls’ he sounds much more comfortable singing songs he’s written with his new bandmates.

I’d actually only heard a few older tracks by Kid Klumsy ahead of the recent Rebellion show and to be honest live they seemed to be much more metal than punk, but here on ‘Singing Our Souls’ the balance does switch back more in favour of the punky side of the street.

Lead track ‘Mr. Right Man’ is built on the type of thunderous uptempo guitar riff Dirtbox made their trademark and rumour has it is apparently autobiographical with Weab telling the story of how his larger than life clown figure became something he grew to hate, and true to that ethos Kid Klumsy are very much a jeans and T-Shirt band.

‘Slob’ is up next and this track is much more metal tinged especially on the double bass drum driven chorus breakdowns. ‘Dislexic Monkyz’ meanwhile is perhaps the most Dirtbox sounding track of the six on offer, largely because of Weab’s singing and even given the wacky subject matter it still manages to contain a really catchy hook.

‘Love Is a Battery Field’ is another tune that sticks in the head this time due to the infectious gang backing vocal whilst ‘She’s A Fuck’ is ostensibly a song about a stalker that is built on a thumping Krist Novoselic bass foundation which then adds huge slabs of 90s metal guitar to build its overall structure. Weab is also pushing himself into new areas vocally on this track and I for one certainly like this almost Ricky Warwick meets Dave Gahan style he has developed.

‘Singing Our Souls’ closes up with ‘Maisey’s Song’ a mid-tempo rocker that doesn’t really go anywhere and for me it’s the weakest track here.

Having been a fan of Dirtbox Disco since the days of their first EP at first I wasn’t exactly sure what to make of Kid Klumsy, in fact even after a good few plays of ‘Singing Our Souls’ I’m still not entirely sure. The EP does have the odd flash of brilliance and it certainly is great to hear Weab singing in styles he wants to sing in; it’s just I can’t help but miss that larger than life clown of old you know.

However, with extensive tours already booked both here in the UK and internationally and Kid Klumsy seemingly growing as songwriters the more they are together, I think I’ll reserve full judgement for when the debut album drops, in the meantime though ‘Singing Our Souls’ is certainly an interesting appetiser if you don’t mind a bit of metal mixed in with your punk that is.

Author: Johnny Hayward

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