Album Review: Don’t Get It by Empty Lungs (by Emma Prew)

Empty Lungs are a punk rock trio from Northern Ireland and earlier this month they released a brand new 3-track EP on Canada’s Hidden Pony Records – they are also the first European band to sign to the label which is pretty awesome. I first came across Empty Lungs via a recommendation from my friend, who lives in Belfast, a few years ago as her boyfriend had filmed some of their music videos. She basically figured that as they fell under the overarching genre of ‘punk rock’ that I was bound to like them – and I did!

The first song on the EP is Don’t Get It, the title track, and it starts out with some powerful, crunchy guitars – it certainly kicks the record off with a bang. At under 2 minutes long, this is fast-paced and energised punk rock at its best. The chorus of ‘I don’t get it, don’t don’t get it, I don’t get it, I’m not with it.’ is as insanely catchy as it is enthusiastic. It’s also a song that I’m sure many young people can relate to – at least those of us that don’t necessarily conform to what is expected of us in today’s society. Thankfully we have the punk scene and bands like Empty Lungs to make us feel comfortable being whoever we want to be.

Losing It. Finding It. is the second song on Don’t Get It. This is a slower paced (and lengthier, too) track with a small amount of warm distortion to both the guitars and vocals. Overall it has more of an indie rock sounds than the first track – think Tellison. I could definitely hear it being played on the radio (6 Music rather than Radio One, mind you). It’s not all indie sounding though as there’s some big woah-ohs at the end that would go down very well at a punk show. ‘Am I just losing my mind, Are we just wasting our time?’

The third and final song is titled Fragile. The track begins with a loud and fuzzy bassline before the somewhat brighter sounding guitars and pounding drums kick in – it’s a big sound, that’s for sure. Then the vocals come in and you realise that this isn’t quite the uplifting anthem that you thought it might be – ‘We lost our friend today, She’s gone, She took her own life away, And I’ll never forget, How we cleaned up that mess.’ It’s certainly a sad song but Empty Lungs also manage to pull off a feeling of empowerment. Life is fragile but it’s still worth living, no matter how tough. (I basically just paraphrased the chorus there.)

Featuring three great individual tracks – by which I mean they don’t all sound the same – Don’t Get It is an excellent release from a very promising UK punk band. If a 3-track EP is this good then I can’t wait for a full-length album!

Don’t Get It was released on the 10th March and you can buy, download and stream it now now now! You can also find Empty Lungs on Facebook here.

This review was written by Emma Prew.