Long live the memory of Mark E. Smith. I have a feeling that if The Fall’s cantankerous showrunner was still with us, he would maybe not completely hate Constant Mongrel’s latest single. It’s not just that “Living in Excellence” evokes the sound of Smith’s lifework in the way the band’s singer sputters and throws up his lines, and the lead guitar annoys the heck out of the listener more than anything else, but there is a rawness to the song that makes me think it could be enjoyed by someone who remembers punk when it was more than a genre stuck in a permanent life support-revival loop.
“Living in Excellence” comes off of an album under the same title (Constant Mongrel’s third), scheduled to come out via La Vida Es Un Mus on September 21. Recorded in the summer of 2017 and produced by Tom Hardisty, the record arrives three years after the Australian band’s last release, boasting a handful of numbers about “the monotonousness of self-loathing, […] atrocity of western religion, […] abundance of a fresh modern fascism,” and other cheery Sunday dinner topics.
The album will be available digitally and on vinyl (who needs CDs, right?), and can be pre-ordered now through several channels. Listen to “Living in Excellence” below:
Living in Excellence tracklisting:
01. 600 Pounds
02. Action
03. Big Boy
04. The Law
05. Anna’s Bickies
06. More Social
07. 2x4
08. Living in Excellence
09. Downhill
10. OK Oi
11. Puffy
More about: Constant Mongrel
