Nothing But Thieves - ‘Dead Club City’ Review: DCC is a one-time party
Nothing But Thieves promises a groovier destination with Dead Club City, blending dance and synth rock. There was potential to build something defining, only to be let down by familiarity.
★★★★★★★☆☆☆
Credit: Nothing But Thieves 📸
The five-piece from Southend-on-Sea have returned with their hotly anticipated fourth studio album, Dead Club City, following a 3-month marketing campaign branding the new era ‘All The Heaven. All The Time’.
Fuelled by Daft Punk-inspired track, Welcome To The DCC and equally dance-rock-focused Overcome, we’ve been pumped to hear the full album come together for a while. It’s the first time the band have created a coherent aesthetic for an album launch after an attempt was made for Moral Panic back in 2020 (the pandemic likely cut this short).
Conor and Co’s first two albums were fundamentally rock records, putting a twist on the likes of MUSE, Radiohead, Led Zeppelin and Foo Fighters. It was Moral Panic that saw them pull together their strengths and attempt to push in a semi-specific direction. It was punchier and accessible (featuring some of their best tracks) but felt underwhelming at times.
Dead Club City sees the band return with that same formula, sticking to what they do best; while expanding their sound into dance-rock and bringing an 80’s sci-fi vibe. Band-member Dominic Craik continues to lead production and the group seem to be as tight as ever.
Throughout the 11 tracks, Dead Club City tells different story arcs from across the ‘city’ to explain a larger narrative. Some of which include topics like the digital world, change, modern love, harassment and societal hierarchies.
:: Track By Track ::
Album opener and lead single Welcome To The DCC introduces us to what appears as a utopian world, fuelled by glamorous dance-rock, inviting both Daft Punk and MUSE to the party.
The track is the perfect ticket to this new era, and potentially one of the strongest opening tracks they’ve produced. It is overflowing with confidence, optimism and a swagger which is impossible to ignore. It’s focused and doesn’t hold back.
Up next is Overcome, arguably the most optimistic and catchy of the 11 stories. Described as a ‘pack your bags and go’ song, it picks up where Welcome To The DCC left off, leaning into 80’s enthused synths for a road trip-worthy experience climaxed by Joe’s guitar solo.
While the solo sounds eerily familiar to plenty of others (The Borders, Sam Fender), it serves as an ideal finish to a song that’ll soundtrack many Summers in the future as we ‘lean into the moment’.
On a more sombre note, Tomorrow Is Closed contrasts this, offering up a darker and more emotional tone complemented by a Strokes-inspired guitar rhythm.
The track presents some pretty thought-provoking lines in classic Conor style while remaining as positive as ever. As he screams about how ‘there’s no future at all’ and ‘we’re all sinking’, you don’t know whether to dance or cry.
Keeping You Around is again a sharp corner change, hopping onto RnB for a track about longing after a lover. It just about fits as a story on the album with the groovier beat and synths, but could easily have slotted into Moral Panic or Broken Machine – which could be intentional with a lyrical nod ‘I’m still a broken machine, babe’ midway through.
City Haunts and Do You Love Me Yet? close the first half of the album, and are two of my favourite tracks of the DCC world.
Starting with the first, it’s Nothing But Thieves at their best, combining previous album sounds, while experimenting vocally with Conor’s voice to add contrast and tell a story. All while keeping an 80’s undertone, and a beat that wouldn’t go a miss in Michael Jackson’s collection.
The track is about what happens in cities at night, and you can imagine what that could involve. It’s an interesting song, and a memorable one too.
Do You Love Me Yet? is my personal favourite, which covers the story of a failing music artist and the efforts they’ll go to for fame in the modern world. That’s my interpretation, anyway.
Like Overcome, it’s immediately accessible, leaning into synth strings, dance rock guitars and a swaggering beat that gets you moving. It becomes apparent at this time that the Thieves seem to thrive on the punchier tracks here, and these are also the moments you feel most rewarded.
As you enter the second half of the album, you also realise a lot of the directional experimentation has been exhausted already. While what’s to come is still exciting and awesome, none of the tracks particularly stand out. Instead, they feel somewhat adapted to fit the groovier tones of Dead Club City.
The saving grace is the glimpses of self-awareness while doing so – with nods to past albums for fans on the lookout for Easter Eggs.
The first track on Side 2, Members Only, brings together elements of previous efforts Futureproof (Moral Panic II) and Trip Switch (Debut). Unsurprisingly, it’s the most familiar of the album and tells the story of a members-only club, perhaps hinting at the elite.
The track still hits hard in classic style (and includes enough synths to warrant a place in Dead Club City) but it doesn’t get a moment to fully shine – perhaps better suited elsewhere.
Green Eyes : Siena is an exception on the second half, a beautifully written love song, perhaps showing Conor at his most cheesy. While feeling slightly out of the place, it’s a nice respite from dancing so much earlier in the album.
Arriving soon after is Foreign Language, twinkling with a fun Stranger Things vibe. Immediately revisiting the 80’s sound from earlier on, it earns a spot nicely but remains a fairly forgettable track.
Talking To Myself is another love song, with a beat familiar from Miracle, Baby (Moral Panic II). Conor sings about isolation, love and the world ending. Similar to Green Eyes, it’s a different story for the wider collection here (which is cool) – but personally these tracks begin to dilute the focus from earlier on, rather than add to it.
The big finish on the album is Pop The Balloon, which is a stark contrast from the slower Talking To Myself. It’s gritty, raw and gnarly and explodes into MUSE-inspired guitars and epic synth interludes to build tension.
While vastly different to the first half, the eruption of anger and energy building made it somehow feel like it earns a place, after the optimism prior. I almost began to even forgive the band for including it.
After a huge introduction, the track slows down, gearing up for a fiery finale. However, in a similar fashion to Phobia (Moral Panic), we arrive at an underwhelming climax with a middle-of-the-road guitar solo lasting less than 10 seconds.
Disappointed but not surprised, you’re left (once again) on the edge of your seat screaming ‘keep going!’ before the track loops back into the main riff.
:: Round-Up ::
Dead Club City is a great album; with enough variety to please every kind of fan. It’s simply a shame the album as a whole can only be applauded as ‘great’.
Nothing But Thieves, like most, publish albums which capitalise on their ‘sound’ and with each release evolve it slightly. Dead Club City felt like it may be the first successful attempt to pick a direction, and go full steam ahead. Funk, groove and dance – blended with their memorable distorted guitars.
What instead happened was an album which felt half-baked, starting unbelievably confident and gradually reeling itself back into familiar territory as it closes. It’s not too dissimilar to an obvious pattern that followed FOALS for a while too.
While it succeeds in pushing into more new ground than usual, it fails to fully embrace a bold and coherent direction. Unless, of course, they were aiming to provide a varied album again – then that’s a different story.
With all of that said, it doesn’t mean the songs are wasted. There’s plenty here that’ll stick around, but those moments are all we’ll remember. That, and the cool aesthetic.
Dead Club City is another banger of an album from a band that remains at the top of indie rock; but it falls short of what could’ve been defining, preferring to offer familiarity over focus.
It’s a small jump forward, rather than the leap we were anticipating – but we love it all the same.
Song Highlights:
Do You Love Me Yet?
Overcome
City Haunts
Welcome To The DCC
Now, it’s your turn. Give it a spin, and tell us what you think on Insta or X.
Rating: 7/10
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