Debut album by The Williams is energetic, brooding, post-punk brilliance.

The Williams

Love Child

Luminant, 2022.

8.5

Review by Jamie Finn (@jamiefinn2209)

The Williams are a serious band with a serious sound. After a series of well-received live shows, the group finally released their debut album, Love Child. With obvious nods to 70s and 80s gothic rock and post-punk, the band create moody, atmospheric and absolutely brilliant indie.

Is this the post-punk revival revival? the nu-new wave? Twogaze? Ok, that last one isn't very good, but whatever we call the sound of the debut album by The Williams, I want in.

Love Child is inescapably indebted to the post-punk movement. Much to the credit of the genre, bands keep finding new ways to take the legacy of post-punk and make something fresh and innovative. Yet, while the obvious comparison for The Williams is Joy Division, the band's love of all things 80s shines through. Album opener 102 is pure Jesus and Mary chain fuzziness, 마취 is a loving tribute to The Smiths, and album closer 아진 is Cure-esque gothic.

Despite The Williams transparently displaying their musical influences, the album manages to resist being derivative. This is largely due to two main reasons. First, the references made by The Williams music are pretty varied and are used in a way that makes them sound fresh. Second, and more importantly, the songs on Love Child are just so damn juicy. There's so much character here in their music with really creative guitar parts. They build up a dark, brooding energy but fuse it neatly to danceable indie rhythms.

The vocal performance is also effective. While there's much more to this than "Korean Joy Division", there is something quite refreshing about hearing that Ian Curtis (and at times Peter Murphy and Ian Ashbury) growl in a different language. Something about it weirdly works well and contributes to the band's fresh take on the sound.

Post-dark-wave? New neo-psychedelia? I don't know. But with this energetic, tuneful and sombre debut, The Williams have marked themselves out as a band to watch out for.