Private Function: Whose Line Is It Anyway? – album review

PRIVATE FUNCTION

Whose Line Is It Anyway?

FOLC Records

LP | DL

Out 1st March, 2021

(Ltd coloured LP presale available now here)

Australian pub-punk rockers Private Function get an official release of their album Whose Line Is It Anyway? on Spain’s FOLC Records.

Lost in a sea of pretences, sometimes all you need is a high-octane injection of pure and simple punk rock, the kind that pins you to the wall as you raise your pint in the pit, spin, slip and slide on the beer-soaked barroom floor, bounced back vertical by the pinball punters flying around. Listening to Private Function’s Whose Line Is It Anyway? recalls exactly that. It rockets along at breakneck speed, flying through its thirteen tracks with the ferocity of a paranoid speed freak hoovering up the last lines in the piss-soaked stalls before diving back into the mayhem. There’s no attempt to dress it up as anything than what it is and should be – pure unadulterated good time pub-punk ‘n’ roll.

From the off, with I Don’t Wanna Make Out With You, it’s chock full of that Oi! sound that will rile up any pit around the globe, done with a glint of cheek and grit in the eye. Spitting and riling, it sets the record off to a flying start before the fantastic Albury Wondonga comes in, rolling and grooving into the kind of chorus that raises sweat-drenched arms around mates propping one another up in the dance of the drunkards. It’s clear that this record was made for the nights we are yearning for the return of, inhibitions set to zero, intentions set to 100.

Tracks like Speed Bumps and lead single Sleep Paralysis bring a more traditional straight punk edge, the Pistols and Kennedys incarnate pummelling the life out of their AC/DC records. That Bon Scott growl over the rollicking blues-rock is pushed out more on the fantastic Evie (Part 4), but they don’t fell the need to crack it to the max throughout. Stop Liking What I Don’t Like sits back in a garage-punk almost powerpop groove. Think Rancid covering The Raspberries and you’ve hit the spot, as Private Function do over and over again. Black Eyed Blues, bouncing between slow dance, lighters in the air breaks and scorching verses skates the same style as Dirty Fences and they even have time to throw in a great version of Lenny Kravitz’s Are You Gonna Go My Way?, leaving the original beaten and bloodied in its dust.

Private Function have gone from strength to strength in their home country and the European release of Whose Line Is It Anyway? should see them catch many new fans in their net across the international punk rock scene. It’s a blistering record with stellar performances from all the band, and they have the songs and attitude to back it up.

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Words by Nathan Whittle. Find his Louder Than War archive here.