Today, Leeds-based rock dynamos Thee MVPs have released their debut album, Science Fiction. The album title in itself serves as a hint to what the listeners can sonically expect, for it firmly establishes Thee MVPs as steadfast experimenters in the realm of modern rock. The band uses Science Fiction as a sonic laboratory for unearthing their own subgenre of rock – one entirely of their own creation; it is one that almost surpasses the ability to define. They have taken elements of grunge, punk, experimentalism, and more, mixed it into a beaker, and let it gloriously explode over the bunsen burner. The result? A confirmed hypothesis that Science Fiction is a fuzzed-up cocktail of electricity that highlights Thee MVPs’ ability to churn out earworm after earworm of raw power.
The degree of innovation presented in the music is also very much reflected within the lyrics, which offer intuitive ruminations on growth and change, challenge, interpersonal connection, and the ever curious ways of the world. ‘A Song for Councillor’ is a wonderful microcosm of this manifestation. Brimming with infectiousness, the track’s hooky nature snakes its way through the caverns of the mind, making its melody and overarching sense of energy wholly impossible to forget. While the track offers strong lyrics of catchy commentary on the importance of togetherness, what ironically emerges as a standout is its wordless chorus. This underscores just how much sound acts as an equalized agent of communication to language not only on this track specifically, but throughout the entirety of Science Fiction.
This is a component that is also presented in yet another standout track, ‘SESH,’ where its mammoth-like presence is firmly established by the eleven second mark. Having previously been released in 2017, Science Fiction presents a richer version of the track that longtime listeners had come to love whilst still maintaining the same sense of heart. Sludgy and buzzy, ‘SESH’ is fully bathed in resonance – whether it be the low guitar wails that comprise the track’s effortlessly memorable primary riff, ear-catching drumming, or the contemplative lyrics that, especially given the album’s title, hearkens the mind back to the character’s use of fictional drug ‘soma’ in Aldous Huxley’s acclaimed science fiction novel Brave New World.
The novel and the lyrics of ‘SESH’ alike both highlight the role that excess (in any facet of life, really – what’s brilliant about both works is that this is largely left open to personal interpretation) can play in terms of complicating life on a short and long-term basis. While we do not live in the fictional World State society crafted in Brave New World, the lyrics of ‘SESH’ are a pitch-perfect fit for the modern dystopia we do exist in. The same can be said for each of Science Fiction‘s ten tracks (‘Super Contactable,’ for example, can be partially taken as something of George Orwell’s 1984 for the modern age with its commentary on the phenomenon of the world constantly having access to everyone through digital channels), which makes the album rather smartly titled.
Science Fiction is filled with well-crafted lyrics and arrangements, sonic surprises aplenty, and grandeur soundscapes that thrash and throttle to life. These components not only result in every single note running through the veins like a sharp shock, but make for an incredibly strong debut album. Our world is a strange one, but Science Fiction is the perfect complement to its myriad of complications.
Science Fiction was released today, 29 May, via Eeasy Records.
