Torn Out – S/T

Quietly, two-man acoustic, aggro-punk act Torn Out has been getting the music out there in 2009. Two demos earlier in the year are now followed, and topped, by this self-titled offering. It’s a mini-album of social awareness that spits venom and punches the kidneys. It’s bleak, brash and stripped-down simple. Basically, it’s a Torn Out record.

Across the seven ‘actual’ songs, we’re offered four brand new songs and three reworkings of previous demo tracks. Opener “Filthy Hands & Fluro Ink” is the pick of the newbies, splattering an anti-possesionist viewpoint (“I’m not going out tonight, I’m counting up my DVDs”) with the fierce verbiage of Ben Smith’s slightly eclectic, off-centre, accented twang. “Matilda & Me” starts out like it could turn into a big pop hook at any moment, only to tread an angry, forceful and impacting path instead.

As for the ‘oldies’, “Soul of These Streets” is probably still the marquee Torn Out tune, but “10 Steps To Get Great Abs” (formerly “Damaged Goods”) has to be up there. It’s almost spaghetti western like build-up and mainstream marketing head-shaking throughout really hits the spot.

A couple of bonus tracks are fastened to the end of all of this. A cover of The Descendents‘ “Bikeage” sounds as though it could easily have been a Torn Out original (the definition of a good cover version right there), and “Knuckles & Pride” returns to the bedroom studio, raw, unfinished and honest. Even the whistling on this track works. And who said Messer’s Smith and Knight were always angry? The pair is caught here laughing and larking. A nice change.

Lyrically ‘Torn Out‘, the record, is a gut-turningly brutal, heart-wrenching, socio-political commentary. It’s simple, not pretty, which is exactly why it works. Brutally frank and penetrating, file this one alongside Sam Russo, Apologies, I Have None, and that particular troop. Oh, and if you’re hard-up, don’t fret, the mini-album is available on a pay-what-you-like basis. Sweet.

Alex