Album Review The Wants - Container

On their debut, New Yorkers The Wants channel a genre we’re going to call ‘dystopian fetish club art-punk’ - its punters are saucy, leather-clad types, but they’re also intellectuals. Maybe they do some coding for an underground government whistleblower on the side. We don’t know the details. Either way, across 12 tracks, they’ve got a dark, tension-laced canon to play it out to: a bleak splash of Interpol here (‘Ape Trap’), a sci-fi instrumental there (‘Aluminium’). Helmed by Bodega’s Madison Velding-VanDam and Heather Elle, ‘Container’ is arguably a lot more straightforward than their other outfit’s precocious lyricisms and unlikely structures; ‘Fear My Society’’s timely sentiments and ‘80s synths feel familiar, while ‘The Motor’ is almost like nu rave for goths. Yet, though there’s a clear outlook and lots to like, there’s a certain ‘leather trenchcoat on Camden High Street’ vibe to The Wants when you sense they were aiming for something a little more forward-thinking.