EP Review: The Shorts – ‘Tango’

The Shorts are an Australian Punk band that have been with Thousand Island Records since around 2018, they then released their first EP with the label ‘Bunker Monkey’ a 90’s style punk sounding effort.  Now in 2020 they are due to release ‘Tango’ on May 22nd, a seven track EP or Mini Album depending on how you view it.

Not to be confused in any way with a certain 70’s Dutch pop band, The Shorts the Aussies can count themselves as part of a very exclusive group of bands that are setting things alight at the moment, from a part of the world so far away, Crash & The Crapenters and Aborted Tortoise to name a couple.

The opening track ‘Sherlock’ doesn’t particularly set the world alight, its punk played well, ticks all the right boxes in sound, and punchiness, what it does do though is kicks off the EP with a vocal that has you looking forward to the journey ahead.  ‘Shady Ladies’ now we are talking, with a rock guitar undercurrent rolling through a song that has a wonderful tempo change at the chorus, melodic as hell without being pop punk and definitely an early highlight.

By track three your starting to realise why this is billed as an EP even though it has seven tracks (which some still call an album), weighing in at a wonderfully to the point 76 seconds, ‘The Drugs’ a lament on how drugs truly have had a more damaging affect on the world than yes even the most corrupt of politicians, punchy up front punk, just the way it should be, quickly followed by ‘K Man’ and ‘Walls’ your left in no doubt that this EP is an assault on the punk sound that you need played very very loud.

So to ‘Gerard Never Made It To Brim’ being the longest track, does this make for something special, absolutely.  A stand out in so many ways, it pulls in every strength from throughout all six other songs and some more!,  an aged vinyl crackle wonderfully draws you into an acoustic kick off that in turn leads up to a powerful punk/country feel to this masterfully put together slice of intricate modern and fresh Rock n Roll.

‘Tango’ the title track finishes off the journey, and what a journey, yes there are moments when you wonder, is this going to be just another thrash out guitar shredding power punk fest that sadly doesn’t bring anything new to a genre that should inherently strive to move forward, well if its same old same old your looking for, your gonna be sadly disappointed.  

This EP covers all the punk bases and then adds a little more.  The Shorts have defiantly taken a punk formula, added a dash of shine, filled it full of fresh new life and blasted it out to full effect. 

This EP will be available through most streaming platforms and can be purchased on CD from Thousand Island Records

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