Album review: Aerial Salad – R.O.I.

The world has changed plenty in the last four years, and it appears that Aerial Salad have changed along with it. On their February 2020 debut album Dirt Mall, the Manc trio slotted into a continuum of perkily melodic Britpunk going back to the ’80s. This time round, things are rather different, as demonstrated immediately by the spidery post-punk guitar figure that runs through R.O.I.’s opener Rottin’ N Shakin’. Elsewhere, the degenerate funk of All Yer Dreamin’ sounds like nothing so much as early Happy Mondays, while Big Business rides a deceptively tricksy riff into a splurge of big rock energy.

Aerial Salad’s progression might be unexpected, but it isn’t entirely without precedent. The insistent basslines of Tied To Pieces Of Paper and John recall onetime hardcore band Ceremony’s similarly-minded In The Spirit World Now; closer to home, High Vis have emerged from DIY punk circles and ended up with a sound that embraces Britpop to a surprising extent. There’s also a certain iconoclastic attitude at play here that chimes with IDLES and the various bands who’ve come up in their wake to provide a different strain of alternative aggro.

Indeed, if their sound now feels calibrated to wider appeal, Aerial Salad have only got spikier lyrically, with standout tunes like Same 24 Hours (As Beyoncé) and They All Lied To Me dripping with scorn at the absolute state of 2020s Britain. What’s more, the energy of their earlier work persists on the irrepressible MDRN LVN and the abandon unleashed when D’You Like Flowers, Son gets to its chorus.

Taking a bold step has paid off; R.O.I. has taken Aerial Salad from plucky underdogs to genuine contenders.

Verdict: 4/5

For fans of: High Vis, SOFT PLAY, IDLES

R.O.I. is released on April 12 via Venn