XL LIFE

The Boogie Down South (Venn)

A bubbling modern punk/hardcore injection, XL Life’s debut album The Boogie Down South has been hotly tipped since last month’s lead single Baby Steps featured formidable bear baiters Bob Vylan. Before that, 2020 EP Sweet Moves served as a foundation for what was to follow for the Traxx (Astroid Boys)-fronted ragers.

With the growing interest in the hyperspeed and projectile vocal delivery of hardcore and punk, XL Life make a strong case when it comes to breaking the glass ceiling of constricting genre stamps. The four-piece fuse groove-led barometers with dispensed blast beats, pop melodies, drum machine segments and chugging guitars could cause landslides.

What carries through most on The Boogie Down South, however, is its themes of struggle and psychological persistence, its band member’s stop-start history not only documented by the album’s pace but its lyrics too.  

words EMMA WAY