The shed project are back with their second album Our Fear Is Their Power.

It’s a statement that is sprayed along a motorway bridge here in the north west aimed at those adorning the Whitehall corridors, and boy is this album a statement piece.

The doors are unbolted as soon as we hear the first strands of if you know you know! This is how you open an album, an introduction of various snippets from the first album serenade the airwaves before wallop the proverbial doors are blown right off! A tune this size deserves to grace a festival field next summer! Heavy guitars and a direct vocal thrusting about life choices until the crescendo of the Dusk Till Dawn on loop takes the song into hypnotic hazy outro.

The shed project are Roy, John, Olly, Tim and Shane and what I love about this band is they are real people singing about often gritty matters from yarned from life experiences deep in Lancashire. The subject matters range from the government to hedonistic caution, loss and pain to the fact that Bolton now resembles a ghost town. They do so whilst wearing their heart on their sleeves and the band can play heavy, they can be intimate and heartfelt or ramp up dance laden grooves.

Weekend millionaire and crowd pleaser are both relatable in most social circles. Excuses is a heavy pulsating track about struggles spiralling out of control.

Our Fear Is Their Power the title track, opens with Shane pounding those drums and beautiful shimmering guitar with its thumping Floyd inspired bass line driving the song, before some of Roys most potent lyrics delivered with intent and a heavy political underbelly. This track is absolute genius, up there with any political or protest song. The message hits hard and leaves it’s mark.

Ghost town is social commentary that is relatable up and down the country with closures on the high street and boarded up old pubs dominating many towns, told with vigour, melody and some serious guitar work.

Naughty is the kind of tune we don’t hear too much anymore, paying homage to those heavy guitar laden dance tracks from the late 80’s and early 90’s. Think about some of the work Paul Okenfold did with the Mondays, this is naughty by name naughty by nature. Such an old school feel to it will sound amazing live, yet it has sinister undercurrents questioning certain pit falls.

The album closer I’ve got the blues is something special, the kind of song that doesn’t come around very often. When I first heard it floored me, the hairs on my arms stood on end and I had a lump in my throat. It’s perfect in its poignancy about loss and struggles. The most reflective lyrics Roy has ever written and I think the vocal is his most tender, the band are right there with him for every note, they sound stunning on this song.

Our Fear Is Their Power is out 24.11

Pre orders available at Wax And Beans

Written by Lewis Duckers

#TheShedProject