Four months after the release of their explosive EP, Heat!, UK rock outfit Deadletter is back again with the single and video for “The Snitching Hour.” The six-piece, comprised of frontman Zac Lawrence, saxophonist Poppy Richler, guitarists Will King and James Bates, bassist George Ullyott, and drummer Alfie Husband, continue to reignite the punk attitudes of the 70s with post-punk revival sensibilities. Their latest is equally abrasive while serving some hard-to-swallow truths about how everyone is to rat on one another, a sentiment spelled out through each and every second.
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Without warning, the drums slap your ears into a wake-up call. As the saxophone rides over the bass, Lawrence packs more than enough to chew on that it ends up equating to the amount of subject matter other singers cover on entire albums. By the time he rips and roars, “love thy neighbor,” the only foreseeable path for the track is to condense everything into an undeniably catchy chorus. But perhaps unsurprisingly, he keeps going and constantly changes his voice in more ways than one.
The music video plays off the stone-cold truth at the center of the track’s message and brings levity, showing the bandmates against a police lineup. Everything from the energy to the failed interrogation tactics of the police makes the visuals feel like the fallout of the Beastie Boys’ famed “Sabotage” video. And while the band might be tight-lipped when giving away their neighbors, they’re anything but quiet.
“Are we slowly but surely being tacitly tempted into a culture of casual betrayal? The messages we are fed, on the outside, might be read as being solely in the interest of public safety,” said Lawrence on the song’s inspiration. “But take a closer look, and perhaps there’s a more insidious undertone to it all.” If anything, Deadletter is here to scream and shout about the pressing issues still ringing true today.
Words: David Sosa
“The Snitching Hour” by Deadletter is out on all streaming services. For more info on Deadletter and their current tour plans, be sure to check them out on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
