Album Review: Culture Abuse – Bay Dream

I’ve got to say that Culture Abuse‘s sophomore album, Bay Dream, is a release that I’ve been looking forward to hearing. Their debut album, Peach, was one of my favourite albums from 2016 and we attended a memorable live performance at Manchester’s Deaf Institute on their debut UK tour. The byproduct of making such an impact with your impression is the well known difficult second album syndrome, that means that there’s a hefty weight of expectation on Bay Dream.

Bay Dream‘s title track eases you into the album with a less chaotic feel than their first album, this carries through to Rats In The Walls that keeps the laid back punk vibe going, something that comes to the fore on the single Bee Kind To The Bugs that exemplifies the mellower and more polished feel that this album showcases. Culture Abuse have turned on, tuned in and dropped out with their sophomore album, they’ve retained the quality that grabbed my attention in the first place, but this is an album that flows rather than being the tsunami of their debut and as a result Bay Dream is the perfect soundtrack to your summer.

What would have been easy for Culture Abuse to do was to create another Peach, and I’d have probably been perfectly happy with that, but with Bay Dream they’ve released an album that has a completely different feel to it. Bay Dream has an almost trippy quality to it, that shows another side to the band and while this is a completely different album to Peach it’s one that is the equal of their debut. Culture Abuse are well and truly back with their first album for Epitaph Records, and if that wasn’t enough they are returning to the UK for a tour this month with The Bronx and The Punk Site will be attending, it’s certainly looking like it’s going to be a good summer.

Bay Dream can be pre-ordered via Epitaph Records here