Eat Defeat - 'I Think We'll Be OK' Album Review

Tracklist:

1. A Little Less Than Ok

2. Duvet Day

3. Smile

4. Nothing's Wrong

5. Can't Say I'll Miss You

6. Shortcuts

7. Running In Place

8. Scorched Earth

9. Self Help (For The Helplessly Selfless)

10. Not Today, Old Friend

Now I’ll freely admit that, as my vast collection of Charles and Eddie bootlegs will attest, I’m not a massive Punk aficionado but, having reviewed and enjoyed fellow Pop Punks Seven Stories High last year, I had high hopes for the latest album from Leeds’ Eat Defeat. “I Think We’ll Be OK” was released at the beginning of August, probably to much less fanfare than it deserves.

The album weighs in at 10 tracks and around 31 minutes, and from the first listen it puts a smile on your face. Opening track “A Little Less Than OK” sets the scene – hooky, great harmonies and crisp guitars, driven by Steve Hawthorn-Emmett’s furiously brilliant drumming and topped off with great lyrics. I loved “Duvet Day” – a perfect song to sum up that can’t be arsed feeling, and Andrew Summers’ delivery of the ‘Get fuuuuuuuuuuucked’ refrain keeps it on the right side of playful and fun rather than coming across as brattish, which it so easily could do in other hands. “Can’t Say I’ll Miss You” feels like the perfect splitting up song, “Smile” is wonderfully optimistic, “Short Cuts”, “Nothing’s Wrong” and “Self Help (For The Helplessly Selfless” are surely far too catchy to qualify as Punk, “Scorched Earth” has you chiming in with the chorus in a way that makes you not care how stupid you look to other people while you’re stuck in endless traffic on Queensferry Road (hypothetically of course)… I could go on and on but I fear I‘ve run out of adjectives and the next delivery is a week on Saturday.

Eat Defeat have been around since 2010 and have done numerous headline tours throughout the UK and Europe, honing their writing and playing in the process and it really shows on this album…”I Think We’ll Be OK” feels like it’s from a band very much at their peak and one I’d love to see live – not least for the surfboard crowd surfing. I’ve always thought the job of a reviewer is to try to give a balanced view, look for the negatives as well as the positives but I’m on my 8th listen through and I have to admit that I am struggling to find any negatives…these songs feel like old friends now - there’s arch lyrics, optimism, a joy of life, great vocals, Rich Coulthard and Jimmy Weaver providing perfect Punk guitars…oh, and did I mention the drums??

Forget the genre tags, if you love great music then “I Think We’ll Be OK” is a must buy.