RATHER RACOON was founded in Bavaria in 2009. Three men and one woman look at you from the cover of their first long player, in a mix of boredom, lethargy, and possible anger that could motivate you to get up.
Their album is called “Low Future“. It used to be called No Future, but well, times change.
Perhaps there is still hope after all.
The album begins with “Golden Days“, which fittingly starts with the first notes of a classic of Cuban music. Here you can hear the opening notes of the song “Chan Chan“. The song also ends this way. In between, Liza's voice sings a bit off-key and with too little power against a punk rock song. It continues with punk rock that has a lot of pressure. Musically, I would describe what comes out of the speakers as a mix of '77 punk and guitar-heavy street punk, which is always played a bit too hectically. Against this sound, one, two, three, and sometimes even four band members sing along.
The arrangements of the songs are generally not bad, but almost consistently a bit too fast, played down in a hectic manner. As a result, the vocals often struggle to keep up and assert themselves against the guitar and drums of the music.
Unfortunately, “Low Future“ does not go beyond good approaches.
After 10 years of band history, one could actually expect more.
