Although the world is becoming smaller (I’m talking metaphorically, of course), the land down under has managed to hold onto it’s musical identity in a way that other countries haven’t. Australia is still producing hard-as-nails, no-nonsense bands from a lineage that began with AC/DC through Rose Tattoo and leads to The Mean Times. Formed in Melbourne/Naarm and now signed to Golden Robot Records, this bunch of rock rowdies drop a debut album in the shape of Feel More Dumb, a raucous affair that contains a baker’s dozen of the best songs that’s sure to make the world sit up and take notice.

With a sound that was forged in the tough, sticky-carpet dive bars of Victoria (and beyond), The Mean Times are a band who do exactly what their name suggests. Feel More Dumb immediately hits top gear with opening track ‘Already Done’, a spiky, angular affair that has an intoxicating effect on the listener. It’s the musical equivalent of sinking a bottle of Jägermeister whilst the lyrics operate with that drunken wisdom coined by The Fall’s Mark E. Smith. It sets a dangerous precedent for the rest of the rest of the record as the band careen wildly like a skier through a slalom. However, The Mean Times are far from one-dimensional and Feel More Dumb is a record that’s constantly shifting through the gears, and with no two songs inhabiting the same sonic space, things never become staid. With influences as diverse as Arctic Monkeys, Blur, Pixies, and The Vines, the band are a nice mixture of the visceral and the cerebral, the highbrow and the low, to create songs such as ‘Sleep Easy’ and ‘Catchas’ that attack the heart and head simultaneously. The former definitely isn’t a cure for insomnia, whilst the latter is, but in whatever guise the band appear, it’s always arresting, and if there’s one thing their schooling in tough Aussie boozers has taught them, it’s how to keep the listener happy.

Three instrumentals stitch the album together, the third of which, ‘Rooted’, is particularly discombobulating and sets things up nicely for the Velvet-Underground-on-acid closer that is ‘Pretty Good For A Sunday’. It ensures the band depart on a high, and whilst this might be The Mean Times’ first album, we’re hoping it won’t be their last.

• Feel More Dumb is released via Golden Robot Records on 12th September 2025.
• Official Website | Facebook | Instagram | X | YouTube Channel

Track List:

1. Already Done
2. Picture Of Health
3. Hook, Line And Sinker
4. Shuffler
5. Hell
6. The Tide
7. Waiting
8. Moving
9. Sleep Easy
10. Catchas
11. I Don’t Wanna Wake Up Again
12. Rooted
13. Pretty Good For A Sunday