There’s not enough time to break down the cognitive dissonance of younger audiences discovering Shame through supporting Fontaines D.C. – who, lest we forget, got their big break as support for them.
All you need to know is that Shame are cool again and, in perhaps the coolest move possible, they couldn’t care less. They’re right back on the offensive with ‘Cutthroat’, their fourth studio album, which they’ve bluntly described as less an exercise in “poor me” and more in “fuck you”.
That much is abundantly clear on the album’s opening suite. The title track’s walloping disco beat is matched to a riff with lasers set to stun, while fearless frontman Charlie Steen invokes Kevin Smith’s 1999 film Dogma of all things.