The Berkeley Hunts are a folk punk band from Melbourne, Australia. Back in January they released their debut album titled Life Living Impersonator and, being a fan of all things folk punk, I took a listen.
Kicking the album off is a song called Poison Place. This is a short, raw and predominantly acoustic folk song about trying to overcome negative feelings about a certain place and about yourself. ‘I’m trying to find the good inside myself, And sometimes I worry if it even exists, ’cause holding my breath just isn’t working, I don’t want to hate the air that, I don’t wanna hate the air that I breathe.’ The Berkeley Hunts brand of folk punk also features a horns section and the trumpet makes an appearance towards the end of the song, teasing of what else is to come perhaps. Predicktor is the name of the second song on Life Living Impersonator and this is a fast and furious track from the outset. Predicktor is another short song – most of the eleven songs on this album are pretty short, as the whole thing is only 24 minutes long – but a lot of lyrics are packed into its short length. The song is about a pessimistic person who is always fearing, almost wishing for, the worst and how it can be difficult to feel anything but negative yourself because of this. ‘So you predict, You see the future and it’s bitter, And it’s bitter, You make it so damn hard to be happy.’
Giving Up takes those pessimistic vibes from the previous track and runs with it. The pace is slowed and we get to hear some more typically folk instruments for this song with some banjo and mandolin. You can probably guess from the title that the song is about not believing in yourself and feeling like you should give up. However Giving Up is not written from an entirely defeatist point of view as the song actually ends in fairly hopeful and encouraging manor, with the lines ‘I’m giving up on, Every single little thing that causes my frustration, ’Cause I’m aching, I can’t take it and it’s tearing me apart, The world that we’re living in will try to fuck us over, I won’t let it, I won’t let it, I won’t let it. You won’t let it, You won’t let it, You won’t let it. Please don’t let it, please don’t let it, please don’t let it.’ The fourth song is the interestingly titled Yr Wires Are Showing And I Can Hear Your Worry, which uses robot-like descriptions as a metaphor for the idea that any faults you have are of your own making. This is a fast paced and impassioned song. I think the obvious musical comparison to make for this sort of raw and unpolished folk punk would be Mischief Brew but The Berkeley Hunts actually remind me of someone quite different on this song. It was early Ducking Punches that came to mind here – if you’re reading in Australia and you don’t know who Ducking Punches are, they are an excellent DIY punk band here in the UK that started out as a solo folk punk endeavour. Next up is a sad song called Leaky Lungs about losing someone to a terrible illness. Leaky Lungs has an appropriately slower pace and features a sorrowful trumpet melody which brings a lot of atmosphere to the song. There is a great sense of building towards the end of the song and it is the last minute [of its 2 minutes 50 seconds] that really steals the show. There’s a chorus that is just begging to be sung along to and, actually, that is what happens as one particular line is repeated again and again by multiple voices. ‘All the atoms in your body, they are empty, you’re empty, And you weren’t born with them, you won’t die with them, So maintain your connections, and speak to me, and speak to me, And I’ll mend your melting mind, just let me in, let me into, All the atoms in your body…’
How Does It Feel? begins fairly slowly with some gentle acoustic guitar that is soon accompanied by a plodding bassline from the double bass. So there I was thinking this was going to be another slow song but, no, the pace picks up as soon as those ragged vocals come in. I think Life Living Impersonator is an album that just gets better and better as it goes on, the first songs weren’t bad but this middle section is turning out to be really great. How Does It Feel? has another excellent chorus – ‘Why won’t you speak to them clearly, And get out of your head? I know it’s not that easy! But you’ve got sensory functions, And you know what’s real, At least I hope that you do.’ This song also has plenty going on instrument-wise with generous helping of banjo. How Does It Feel? slickly fades into the next song which is called Operate My. This seventh song wastes no time in getting going with rumbling drums and, later on in the song, we are treated to some accordion as well – a combination that is bound to get your head nodding. Operate My uses the theme of the human body, that has appeared in previous songs on the album, and in particular is about deconstructing it – or operating on it – albeit metaphorically. ‘So won’t you break my bones, To operate my body.’ It’s interesting that until I actually started to write this review, having listened to the album more than a few times already, I didn’t realise there was a human body, illness, putting together/taking apart type theme to this set of songs. For Orlando, Forever Ago is a song that is a whopping 14 seconds long and in that time The Berkeley Hunts manage to get out a whole load of pent-up anger. Surprisingly, only about half of the song is super fast paced as it starts out slowly and in an almost care-free manor with the line ‘You’re a waste of fucking space…’ It continues in that vein… but faster.
As we draw towards the end of the album, The Berkeley Hunts show that they can write slightly longer songs with this next one, Hundred Minute Hours, lasting more than three minutes. I think this might be a love song or at least an ode to an especially close friend. Either way Hundred Minute Hours is a heartfelt and honest song that brought a smile to my face. The instrumentation is fairly simple, a combination of drums, banjo and acoustic guitar for the most part, which really allows the vocals – and the lyrics – to shine. The lyrics are really great throughout but there’s one line that stood out to me – ‘Because I see worst in everyone, and you see the best in me.’ The song is played out with some pounding drums and a splattering of the horns section, bringing us nicely to the penultimate song and the actually longest track on the album. Tonsillitis is a four minute epic and a fairly fast-paced track that fully embraces the classic folk punk sound. I think this is the first song I’ve ever heard that personifies tonsillitis, or any other illness, quite like this so bravo to The Berkeley Hunts for doing something new. (Unless it is all one big metaphor and I’m reading it all wrong.) I’m fortunate enough to have never had tonsillitis but it sounds pretty darn awful in this song and that shows some great songwriting. ‘You crawl down my throat, Make my brain explode, And dry all the liquids from my body, When I am sleeping, You’ll be busy working, To make my morning into misery, The lights are too loud, I can’t put my head down, But it won’t hurt if you don’t make it, If I maintain my distance, Find some kind of balance, Well maybe I can maintain my existence.’ Blue is Life Living Impersonator’s closing track and it takes a fairly stripped back approach, keeping the instruments to a minimum – guitar, bass and drums. The slow pace and somewhat melancholic atmosphere feels like an appropriate ending however. There are again some references to the human body in this song and the mention of the word ‘atoms’ again had me thinking that this song, and the album, was going to end with another singalong of ‘All the atoms in your body…’ Alas, it does not. The closing lines are ‘So I’ll live lonely, and you won’t have to, I’ll split atoms, without explosions, ’Cause I am empty and I am blue.’
I have to admit that when I first listened to The Berkeley Hunts, I wasn’t fully into them. The vocals, more than the instruments, are definitely raw and a little rough around the edges, in that sort of Andrew Jackson Jihad style, and are what might be considered an acquired taste. But when I properly sat down to review the album and listened more intently to each song, whilst reading the lyrics, I found a greater appreciation for Life Living Impersonator. I’m not saying that everyone should listen to the album as closely as I have but I highly encourage giving it a listen – especially if you are a fan of proper DIY folk punk which is what this is.
You can buy and stream Life Living Impersonator on Bandcamp and find The Berkeley Hunts on Facebook too.
This album review was written by Emma Prew.
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