The newest album from Mancunian Post-Punk outfit IST IST boasts an electrifying sound with clear and smooth production, utilising their energy from their live shows to bring a new excitement to the project. We were lucky to see IST IST in April 2023 at their show at the Hare and Hounds in Birmingham and they dominated the stage alongside supporters Postman and Mosaics. This album showcases the band’s ability to transform their energy and presence on stage into a structured and developed album.
The band has a distinct style: Post-Punk lyrics and tone with New-Wave synths and piano alongside Indie-Rock guitar riffs. These stylistic choices help to cement IST IST into their genre, as their repetitive choruses stick into the listener’s heads after the first listen. Similarly to Joy Division and other Post-Punk artists, the band tackles dark and serious topics within their lyrics, whilst creating energetic and striking beats.
The album opens with the song ‘Lost My Shadow’, a dark and enchanting track which focuses on loss. This is developed as the album continues with ‘I Can’t Wait for You’ which focuses on the romantic feelings of a relationship disappearing. Despite the sad lyrics, the piano and guitar offer a more joyful sound, creating a catchy rhythm that you cannot help dancing to. The repetition of "On and on the feeling’s gone" alongside the proclamation of "I can’t wait for you" reflects the sadness at the loss of these feelings, but also the acceptance of this inevitably. Maybe this deterioration of the relationship was always going to happen?
Tracks ‘What I Know’ and ‘Hope to Love Again’ feature memorable guitar riffs. The former features a heartbreaking declaration that, "Here’s what I know, although I miss you, I’m never coming home". The album features these boundaries which must be enforced amongst loss and heartbreak and ‘Hope to Love Again’ features a similarly hopeful yet damning repeating phrase "The hope you’ll love again", is consistently repeated, almost reassuring the listener as well as the singer that, things will be ok again and love can be found amongst loss and grief.
The album ends with the song ‘Ghost’, starting with a melancholy piano melody which then climaxes to create a beautiful end to the album. IST IST’s ability to create a haunting exploration of thoughts after loss and heartbreak cements them as one of the best emotive songwriters.
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