Benefits – ‘Nails’ album review
2023 has already been a year of stellar releases, and this week sees one of the most important arrive. Nails, the hotly-anticipated debut album by Teesside trio Benefits, is one of the most profound records of this year — and maybe even this decade.
Comprised of frontman Kingsley Hall and the brothers Robbie and Hugh Major, the group has established a robust blueprint on Nails. Their visceral political messaging wipes the floor with many notable groups who have used their art to weigh into the increasingly dire state Britain has found itself in over the past few years. With Hall, there’s no posturing or posing.
Authentic, furious and absolutely vital, Nails is a record that perfectly captures the sentiments of many of us lucky enough to live on this sceptred isle. It offers a real-life narrative that dispels the fantasy presented by politicians and the media. This is the sound of a broken populace sick and tired of being taken for a ride by the powers that be.
Do not be fooled, though, this is not the hollow rage we’ve become accustomed to by those touted as our musical saviours. This one is full-bodied and just. Across Nails, Hall outlines the horrors and struggles of living in contemporary Britain, exploring essential topics such as living conditions, immigration and nationalism with poetic verve. Often utterly incensed, to the point in which he sounds as though on the verge of suffering an aneurysm, Hall’s delivery is placed front and centre in the mix, acting as the band’s primary weapon. It drives the sentiment home on top of the varied and often freak-out musical choices, stoking the personal flames of discontent. You’re left thinking: “Why haven’t we had a proper riot since 2011?”
The record opens with ‘Marlboro Hundreds’. Enticing us with a compelling ambient soundscape, anyone unfamiliar with the group would be forgiven for thinking that this was to be some hypnotic electronic or shoegaze body of work. Then, Hall slices through the mix, and the mood begins to change. As if through a megaphone at a rally, he implores us: “Formulate your own ideas. Don’t get bullied by hate speech. Ignore cartoon fascists”. He then repeats, “reject hate”, before barking an elongated “reject” as a blast beat explodes, coloured by a wonky drone.
A stark way to commence the record, the fury and power of this cut instils their style with a distinctive Teesside character. It is then followed by ‘Empire’, a loose composition that grows menacingly fierce thanks to the unrelenting, low-drone of the electronics and Hall’s guttural growl.
Other significant moments arrive in the shape of ‘What More Do You Want’, wherein Hall paints a grotesquely vivid image with lines such as “the slow, grinding death of the English dream”. ‘Shit Britain’, meanwhile, is a departure from what came before it on the album, with an almost trip-hop beat and more subdued instrumentation. Hall’s lyrics are taken to another level, aided by his spoken word delivery. Take the following line, for example: “Sleep tight merry men, sleep tight. Don’t let the austerity bite in shit Britain”, aided by the very low pulse of the delectable bass.
A track that lodges a solid claim to be one of the best on the record is ‘Traitors’. An incisive number that sees Hall tear into the political status quo in Britain, the material is another one of the most unyielding pieces, with the blast beats and his distorted, frenzied vocals evoking a chill. Hall sings: “Sell your guitars, pawn your clarinet, fuck your creativity, fuck your dreams. The new normal doesn’t need entertainment. It needs only work, viable work. Retrain, stop moaning, get a fucking job making fucking flags, shut up now, shut up now, shut up. We get the future you deserve.” This is one of the best lyrical moments I’ve heard in a long time, and trust me; it’s even better in the context of listening to the track.
The final song, ‘Council Rust’, perfectly brings the curtain down on Nails. A transcendental track wherein Hall’s delivery is akin to an internal monologue as he analyses the self and surroundings more forensically than anywhere else on the album. A host of ethereal textures and instrumentations swirl around him in a flowing stream of consciousness, making the profundity of his words immerse you within seconds.
Overgrown municipal play parks, greed, memorial benches and a weather-beaten lack of trust all crop up, making you consider how we got to this juncture. In the second half of the song, the moving strings and feedback of the guitar tussle for a place in the mix before giving way to a slow and touching fade into the black. After all, this is fate that waits for us all. “Raise your glass, forget it, be free,” Hall says himself.
Benefits is the band Britain needs right now.
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