NOTHING BUT THIEVES RETURN WITH NEW ALBUM ‘DEAD CLUB CITY’
“Dirty English sky is washing me away.”
“Tomorrow Is Closed” | Dead Club City
From the moment you hear the first few notes play from Dead Club City, the new album from English Rockers Nothing But Thieves. You know two things, this is not your standard Nothing But Thieves musical fare, and the band has boldly dipped their toes into the world of concept albums. So this is going to be a wild ride, and it is. If you haven't heard of Nothing But Thieves, they are a quintet hailing from Southend, U.K. comprising Conor Mason (vocals, guitar), Joe Langridge-Brown (guitars), Dominic Craik (guitars, keyboard), Philip Blake (bass), and James Price (drums). In their ten years, they have amassed quite the fanbase and following, including a #1 alternative radio single here in America with Trip Switch. Now the band is on the fourth studio album Dead Club City a blistering venture into an unknown world filled with narratives, characters, and concepts all inspired by the band's struggles with the pandemic, the lockdown, and life in this new world we live in. NBT has always had a natural knack for raw honesty and extrospection (and introspection in some cases) in their lyrics. So, an album like Dead City Club truly allows them to explore and hone in on those skills.
The album opener, Welcome To The DCC (aptly titled, I might add), quickly puts the listener within the world of the DCC. Frontman Conor Masons' honeyed falsetto greets you with the lyric Welcome To The DCC repeated. All set amongst an atmospheric soundscape of textured tones and synths. The crunchy layered guitars are all very 80s inspired and hard-hitting. The album segues into the second track, the anthemic single Overcome, a song filled with blissful synths, punchy basslines, and rockier guitars. Lyrically, it's one of few tracks that lean hopeful in tone and messaging. NBTs' grit is still very apparent throughout the record as well. It's not something they lost or even shied away from. It is all over tracks like Tomorrow Is Closed, City Haunts, and Members Only. The latter two have a sludgier stomp-rock vibe to them. There are a few restrained moments on the record, like the reflective love letter Green Eyes:: Siena and the slinky R&B-influenced confessional Talking To Myself. The band also leans fully into pop and electronic music on the dance-pop number Foreign Language. Dead Club City closes on a high note with the electric and hard-rock number Pop The Balloon. It is loud, brash, and so rock and roll. 
NOTHING BUT THIEVES - Dead Club City Album Cover
While Nothing But Thieves has been a band for ten years now. This fourth record clearly shows why they are one of the U.K.s most exciting Rock acts and live shows. Dead Club City demonstrates Nothing But Thieves' progression as a band and their skill in experimentation. It has not steered them wrong so far. While the concept album can quickly go bad, even comical for so many artists, for Nothing But Thieves, it didn't. It could be the overall evasiveness and abstract nature of what is the inner realm of the Dead Club City. Which comes across in a more choose-your-own-adventure manner, even more so with the attached visuals. Then there is the tight production from band member Dominic Craik and the on-point vocals from Conor Mason. Whatever it is that gelled together at the right time, Nothing But Thieves has easily put out one of my favorite albums of this year.
You can stream Nothing But Thieves' Dead Club City, which is out now on all DSPs, by clicking here.
Welcome to the DCC
Overcome
Tomorrow Is Closed
Keeping You Around
City Haunts
Do You Love Me Yet?
Members Only
Green Eyes :: Siena
Foreign Language
Talking To Myself
Pop The Balloon
