A firm favourite of the band’s, ‘Fear Up’ is the third track to be taken from Crazy Arm’s fast-approaching new album, ‘Dark Hands, Thunderbolts’ out 29 January 2021. Preorder here on black or white vinyl, CD and download.
Listen to the new single here, with a video due very soon.
Epic of sound and cinematic in scale, ‘Fear Up’ erupts from the speakers like Ennio Morricone conducting the Constantines. From its gunslinging opening guitar lines, to its stentorian rallying cries and palpitating drum rolls, ‘Fear Up’ gallops towards a blazing Mariachi brass inflected finale courtesy of the genius that is Simon Dobson on trumpet.
A brooding and vengeful disposition, not for the faint-hearted, the track finds Crazy Arm musing on a controversial and psychologically coercive military technique that plays on personal terror. As Darren Johns explains: “The title (‘Fear Up’) is US military slang for the use of the spectre of violence to keep citizens submissive and afraid. Naomi Klein explains its nefarious use in her book, ‘The Shock Doctrine’.”
The track arrives hot on the heels of the hard-hitting polito-punk of recent single ‘The Golden Hind’, which alongside ‘Brave Starts Here’; pave the way for their long awaited fourth album ‘Dark Hands, Thunderbolts’. Their first new music in seven long years, it’s a record that promises a return to the rowdy guitars, epic choruses and Americana twang of their first two albums. Though much has changed since they’ve been away, expect a band in reflective, but no less indignant mood.
Speaking about the band’s long awaited return, Darren Johns (vocals/guitar) of Crazy Arm says: “We may be 15 years old now (and more of a fluid collective than a band), and the twin troughs of COVID and Brexit may have scuppered all our best laid tour plans, but we’re not done yet! We hope ‘Dark Hands, Thunderbolts’ makes this current colossal shitshow a little easier to bear. Here’s to the unwritten future.”
Guaranteed to be worth the wait, Dark Hands, Thunderbolts is a sonic and emotional rollercoaster ride that upends expectations at every turn.