Album Review Lice - WASTELAND: What Ails Our People Is Clear

A notable departure from past material, their full-length debut feels like LICE’s conscious uncoupling from the contemporary musical landscape. A conceptual commentary on the band’s perceived banality of the ‘satirical guitar music boom’, they lampoon the cliche across 11 barnstorming tracks. But for all the bridge burning, there is still a touch of the familiar. Deeply rooted in modern leftfield sensibilities, they combine their unique brand of artistic experimentation with the grounding influence of their peers: the industrial thump of Black Midi, the caustic drawl of IDLES, and on closing track ‘Clear’, drafting in the literal croon of Goat Girl. The result is a collection of biting, esoteric hymns that readily combine the earthly and the cosmic.