Can Cabbage prove they're no one-hit wonder with The Extended Play of Cruelty?

Cabbage – The Extended Play of Cruelty (BMG)

Genre: Post Punk

Cabbage have been through a rough few months after lead singer Lee Broadbent had to deny claims of sexual assault and was videoed with his hands down his pants on stage, but what impact has that had on the music?

If it’s the band’s style to fly close to the wind during their live performances, their releases have been a way of venting through more coherent means.

This EP is the first since debut album Young, Dumb and Full Of… and carries on with their five-piece’s social commentary, critique and distrust of those who wield power. Silly is out, Cabbage are serious now – there are no songs about your dinner lady anymore and although the lyrical content is strong enough to turn Johnny Rotten’s farmhouse butter into cheese, what about the actual music?

For a start, there are no rollicking, frantic tunes along the lines of Uber Capitalist Death Trade. The songs are all more considered, as if the subject matter takes priority before a good tune. Celebration of a Disease is a slow-burner with Broadbent manically spitting his lines in true punk style while the band almost play elevator music to his megaphone rant.

Fraudulent Artist picks up the pace in true post punk style and occupies the middle ground between punk and rock that has become the natural hunting ground for bands like this. A Network Betrayal is the most interesting of the bunch and is a chronicle of hate against trains and the petty bureaucrats that run and sustain them.

While final track of the EP, Asa Morley, is named after the band’s drummer and is a surprisingly addictive song that seems to be about the things he does in his spare time – if you can get past Broadbent’s punk drawl.

Cabbage don’t seem like a band who will ever do what others want, and that’s refreshing in itself. They don’t play by anyone else’s rules, and while that can take a little bit of getting used to it’s well worth it in the end.

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