Opus Kink – ‘The Sweet Goodbye’ album review: A magnum opus worth waiting for
On their eight-years-in-the-making debut LP, Opus Kink have finally trapped their shadowy, subterranean kingdom of cabaret-punk onto wax. Any fear that the impish energy of their live sets would be sanitised by the studio is swept away within seconds, as the album grabs you by the collar and pulls you down into the slick, smoke-bound dark of their netherworld.
The Skinny: What a time to fall in love with punk music. Jazz-punk, dance-punk, electro-punk: slap almost any prefix in front of the word these days and someone, somewhere, is probably doing it exceptionally well. And now, The Sweet Goodbye offers up an ever-mutating brand of jazz-and-country-laced punk, forged in the dirt of live sets delivered in all murky corners of the world, from Serbian abattoirs to Tyneside industrial estates.
From the driving, swampy rock of opener ‘Come Over, Do Me Wrong’, where an Ethio-jazz horn riff transports you straight to a smoke-filled Parisian speakeasy, to the bouncy, wonky pop of ‘Will It Come For You?’, which pairs a Dry Cleaning-style bassline with the jittery, pressure-cooker tension of Shame’s Drunk Tank Pink, Opus Kink’s manic absorption of influences shines across their debut LP.
The album’s alchemic energy propels you through the tracklisting, and like any unforgettable night of debauchery, it’s full of some delicious twists and turns too. ‘I’m a Pretty Showboy’ shakes things up with its Getdown Services-esque bouncy riff and strutting horn section, while their collaboration with folk outfit The New Eves throws you off-axis just as you begin to sink into an armchair with a glass of whiskey, inflecting traditional folk with razor-sharp brass. The track tells the haunting tale of Alice Molland, the last woman tried and hanged as a witch in England, and is delivered with chanted vocals so haunting they’ll have you double-checking your locks at night.
If you’re wondering why it took eight years, two wildly acclaimed EPs, and a string of singles to finally deliver a full-length debut, it certainly wasn’t caused by a lack of vision, merely the business of real life. Between guitarist Jed running an indie label, trumpeter Jack touring the world, brothers Sam (bass) and Fin Abbo (drums) teaching music, keys player Jazz Pope working as a delivery driver, and frontman Angus Rogers slinging books and pints around Peckham while also publishing poetry, finding time to record together was a piecemeal process.
It wasn’t until they crossed paths with Grammy Award-winning producer Craig Silvey (Arcade Fire, Baxter Dury, Sam Fender) that those fragments coalesced. The Sweet Goodbye sees Opus Kink scream out from the stagnant, compromising conundrum of modern life, and it wouldn’t exist without the eight long years of real-world drudgery it took to reach the finish line.
Standout Track: ‘Come Over, Do Me Wrong’
The Verdict: Building on the band’s early foundations of brass-heavy jazz and dirt-slicked country-punk, Opus Kink’s textured debut expands their sound to encompass a labyrinth of influences without ever feeling fragmented, it’s an intoxicating album that more than rises to meet the occasion of an eight-year wait.
Release Date: July 31st, 2026 | Producer: Craig Silvey | Label: So Recordings
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