Meltheads - Decent Sex

Where Meltheads’ debut excels is when the Belgian outfit live up to their name. Past single ‘Theodore’ is by far the standout, its bubbling angst (“I’m fucking selfish / I lie and I cheat / About five times a week”) delivered atop a heady combination of industrial percussion and Adam Ant angularity, while ‘Vegan Leather Boots’ conjures moshpits in the mind with its brash ferocity. Elsewhere, though, it’s a mixed bag: the swivel from Franz Ferdinand-aping guitar stabs to IDLES-style hammering chorus on the opening title track has seams still visible; the post-punk rattle that introduces ‘White Lies’ a little too obvious, and while ‘Gear’ proves itself an earworm, it’s also exceedingly similar to early SOFT PLAY release, ‘Sockets’. Still, bar the tedious ‘Screwdrivers’, with its whiplash-inducing shift in style to lingering ‘70s soft rock, ‘Decent Sex’ is a perfectly decent album.