Goodbye Blue Monday

Misery-Punk Ruined My Life (2018)

Pete Vincelli

A few months back, I stumbled across a lyric video from Scotland’s Goodbye Blue Monday for the song “Misery-Punk Ruined My Life”. Deliberately corny, the video purposely contradicts the sound and tone of the song. And it works. I was completely thrown off, but pleasantly surprised, once the vocals started. The video led me to this 3-song EP by “the most dangerous band in Scottish pop-punk.”

The first line of the opening track pretty much sums up the tone of the EP. “I tried to write an optimistic song, but the words got twisted and it came out wrong.” And from beginning to end, the band takes on this persona, but it’s hard not to love the misery. It was the verse of the title track that hooked me. The band has a knack for stuffing a lot of syllables into one line, which speeds up the rhythm, but catches your attention. And “Misery-Punk…” is a great example of this. The verse makes you want to sing along, but it’s not until the chorus that you’re actually able to sing along, where lead singer Graham Lough sings “Why must I be so miserable?”

The other two tracks, “Worst In The Mornings” and “Love Is A Noose For Two”, use a similar formula as the first track. The lyrical topics are still overtly dark in the same vein as Alkaline Trio and Off With Their Heads.  And the vocals are loud, scratchy, and angry, but there is loads of melody. Alberto Morillas Bravo's drumming is tight, loud and aggressive and adds to the angst, while Ross Gammie's bass provides a touch of warmth to contradict the despair. And Jack Cunningham and Lough's jangly, high toned guitars lend a wee bit of happiness to the songs.

All three songs on this release are cohesive enough to keep your attention, but are still distinguishable from one another. This EP is a great introduction to a band that hopefully has more gloomy tunes in the works. Somehow, these miserably awesome songs make me happy and give me hope that there’s still tons of amazing music out there, despite what the radio keeps trying to tell me.