Not content to sound like the musical equivalent of a photocopy where the ink is about to run out, Vice Squad continually push the boundaries of punk. With its eerie quasi-psychobilly guitar riff, theremin and weird tuning, ‘Worry Doll’ sounds like the Banshees and Black Sabbath engaged in an unholy coupling on Hallowe’en.
The lyrics carry a serious message about the overprescribing of antidepressants to numb the pain of everyday life whilst not fixing the actual problem.
‘Madness is made to function
Sanity comes on prescription
Dispensing pills like sweets to children’
Reducing human beings to economic units is bound to cause unwanted side effects.
‘Tenant’ is a free-form thrash fest that describes the nightmare world of below-breadline rentals and slum lords and its egregious effect on mental health.
‘Bang banging on the bedroom floor
Renovating a shaking floor
Desperate to not get more
We’re not normal.’
‘Starvation Box’ has more than a little Strummer/Jones influence and tells the tale of selling a beloved guitar for peanuts, ‘Down Denmark Street, to get ripped off.’ ‘Handbags At Dawn’ describes something most of us are familiar with – arguing with fools and bots on social media.
So, 4 songs address 4 causes of mental health problems: over-reliance on medication, poor housing, the cost of living and the unbridled abuse dished out on social media. Pass the Prozac, please!