Grade 2 – ‘Talk About It’

Grade 2 are the best kind of young punk heroes. Five albums into their quest from the Isle of Wight to the glittering heights of Campbell, California, the trio have somehow managed to sound more like Rancid than Rancid ever did. It’s more than that though; the trio give us a window into the powerhouse Tim and Lars could have been had they stayed clear of poetry and ska. Instead, six years into their journey to become the Isle’s finest export since layered sand, they’ve hit a winning vein of relatable street punk without the aggression and bad reputation that haunts the more orthodox bands in the skinhead-adjacent sphere. They’re so aware of their lineage, yet with ‘Talk About It’, they’re stretching themselves into the update that the old school punk scene needs. 

For the first time, it feels like we can discuss the Grade 2 sound as a product of their influences rather than just as a mashup of all their favourite things. Sure, ‘Cut Throat’ really, really sounds like Rancid, but there’s a ferocity to the drumming that’s all their own and an emo tint to Sid Ryan’s vocals that provides a much needed clarity. Precision is the name of the game, and their dedication to keeping their sound as sharp as humanly possibly is absolutely what is distinguishing them from their mentors. Even their lead single, ‘Hanging Onto You’, which tumbles through concrete skate parks and Pennywise callouts, features incredibly sharp shards of melodic guitar, and rapidly spat lyrics with a focus on the struggles of mundanity elevate ‘Standing In The Downpour’ above our expectations. Sure, the title track drags in some of the organ sound which we’ll always associate with the ‘Life Won’t Wait’ era of Rancid, but it’s just frosting on an original, straightforward and sarcastic little cupcake of a track. 

Ultimately, Grade 2 have grown into their own sound and got the bruises to match the toughness that their lyrics promise. ‘Better Today’ has to be autobiographical, and it’s a song which has the tendons pushed right to the skin through a clenched fist of determination to keep going. Their rock solid stance on continuing pushing through flourishes on ‘Don’t Worry About Me’, and if this was 2005, the lyrics would be emblazoned in Tip-Ex on every teenager’s bag. The short-sharp-shock approach is working for them: the whole album is less than half an hour, and half the tracks are ninety seconds long, but honestly? Having a tight blast of vicious street punk is what the genre calls for, a shot of something high proof rather than a lazy pint. ‘Rotten’, probably their most political track, is a case in point: screamed slogans and thrashed riffs make for fiery polemic in closely packed doses. This is the sort of thing they should have been doing all along, and stepping out from the shadows of punks past means that we can truly appreciate how far these lads have come and what they can offer the world. 

“I never thought I’d make it out alive, I’ve made it through to the other side,” Ryan beams on closer ‘Otherside’, and it feels like a perfect headline for the coming-of-age record that is ‘Talk About It’. Grade 2 are standing on their own as proper punk rockers, their youthful freshness burned away by a bass inferno and pit experience, and that sense of post accomplishment and promise for what they could accomplish next is what ‘Talk About It’ emits from every riff. The sheer force of will to distill their complex emotions into explosions of seventies punk is admirable on its own, but the result is even more impressive as it comes in the form of an absolutely cracking record.

KATE ALLVEY