When I first heard Automatic Lovers, my instant reaction was, "Hell yeah — we need more bands like this in today's scene!" The Madrid foursome dropped an absolute smasher of a debut single last year — warming my heart with its raw and aggressive vintage 1977 punk rock sound. The band's next challenge was to sustain the same quality and energy over a full album, which is something that's not necessarily easy to do. Sometimes punk rock bands fare better in the short format where they can hit you hard and fast and leave you wanting more. But on their self-titled debut long player (out on Wap Shoo Wap Records and Folc Records), Automatic Lovers prove themselves to be 100% the real deal.
Over the course of 11 tracks, Automatic Lovers let it rip with force and ferocity — unleashing a heat-seeking missile of a punk rock album. Of course the inspiration for this sound is obvious. The band follows the blueprint of Slaughter and the Dogs, The Vibrators, Eater, The Users, Dead Boys, Menace, Stooges, Pagans, early Damned, etc. with the utmost enthusiasm. But while any band can emulate a style, Automatic Lovers truly have the spirit and power of this classic music coursing through their veins. They tear through these songs with reckless abandon. The drummer sounds like he's trying to pound his kit into submission. The lead guitars rip wildly. The singer spits fire and fury. You might hear a track like "Wasting Time" and surmise that the band can't possibly sustain that level of intensity for a full album. But you'd be wrong! And the tunes (complemented by a couple of ace covers) are legit good. This is a killer punk rock album in any year. You hear a record like this and remember the heart-pounding excitement of hearing punk music for the first time — when suddenly everything else in your record collection seemed super-lame by comparison. What a thrill it is to hear such a young band take up this old school punk rock sound and pull it off this brilliantly. If I had heard a band like this in the later '90s when I was obsessively collecting '70s punk records, I would have flipped my shit! Wap Shoo Wap Records is quickly becoming one of those labels whose releases you never want to miss.
https://wapshoowaprecords.bandcamp.com/album/automatic-lovers-2
https://folcrecords.bandcamp.com/album/folc305-automatic-lovers-automatic-lovers
https://open.spotify.com/album/1OUO1NuHdt3Q3VzRr7CVj2
https://www.instagram.com/automatic.lovers/
https://www.instagram.com/wapshoowaprecords/
https://www.facebook.com/wapshoowaprecords/
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