Bursting at the seams with great hooks and relatable stories, this record rarely pauses for breath!
There are records that arrive politely. This is not one of them. ‘CRASH!‘, the new album by Essex genre-bending indie Punks Rat Boy, does as the title suggests – crashes through the door and launches into full attack from the first buzzsaw chord.
Fronted by Jordan Cardy, now one of Britain’s more singular modern frontmen, Rat Boy has evolved from Cardy’s multi genre solo project to a fine punk rock quartet. Featuring Cardy on vocals/guitar, Harry Todd on guitar, Liam Haygarth on bass, and drummer Noah Booth, the band’s debut album, ‘SCUM‘, broke into the UK Top 15 and established them as one of Britain’s most original young punk-influenced acts.
Stylistically Rat Boy remains a sonic collision. Mashing up several styles of trans-atlantic Punk rock, Britpop, Hip-hop and Ska, all supported Cardy’s kitchen-sink storytelling.
Cardy and Co. embrace the glorious mess of British youth culture, filtering suburban life, boredom, rebellion and black humour into tunes that owe as much to The Clash, Beastie Boys or The Specials as they do to Hard-Fi and The Streets – making the ordinary sound epic and the scruffy sound essential.
‘CRASH!‘ is Rat Boy’s fourth studio album, and for my money, their best yet. Recorded in just a few days with a real DIY spirit, in a pair of sheds situated in the Essex garden of rock bass goddess Suzi Quatro, ‘CRASH!‘ is a wonderfully urgent example of punk rock in 2026.
At eighteen short, sharp tracks, it’s loaded with well-crafted, melodic punk rock tunes and is gloriously unconcerned with any prevailing fashions. It’s a supremely confident and extremely listenable collection from a band clearly at the top of their game.
The album was co-produced by Cardy and Noah Booth under the guidance of Hellcat label chief Tim Armstrong, and despite the obvious influence of Rancid’s Armstrong, especially in vocal styling, the overriding impression is one of DIY autonomy rather than any overt supervision. In fact, at times the production feels reassuringly loose, which adds to the record’s charm and authenticity.
Opener and first single release, ‘Broken’ arrives like a flying bottle through a pub window. Co-written with Armstrong, it rides a barrage of jagged guitar riffs, terrace-sized hooks and shout back call-and-response backing vocals, announcing the album’s intentions with admirable blunt force.
From there the record rarely pauses for breath.
New single ‘Highlife’, followed by ‘Away Days’, ‘Baseball Bat’ and ‘Gun To My Head’, form a breathless opening sequence, full of energy and observation, as Cardy barks his tales of modern England with the conviction of a man who’s has actually lived them. He brilliantly turns real life issues into edgy pop punk tunes.
Throughout, the guitars snarl, the rhythm section drives things forward, and every chorus seems designed for a crowd already halfway over the barrier. ‘City Boys’, ‘Public Warning’ and ‘Sick of it’, keeps up the momentum.
But ‘CRASH!‘ isn’t merely fast and furious. Tracks such as ‘The River’, ‘Night Bus’ and ‘Skeletons’ hint at the melancholy lurking beneath Rat Boy ‘s grin.
Cardy has a Strummer-esque knack for finding poetry in overlooked places – late-night journeys, dead-end conversations, anonymous streets – and here those instincts lend emotional depth to the racket. Make no mistake, these are memorable songs.
The album’s latter half delivers some of its strongest moments. ‘Make Me Stay’, ‘S.O.S’, ‘Reason’ and ‘No Stars’ in particular channel the raw mid-’90s spirit that clearly inspired much of the project, while avoiding being overly nostalgic by sounding alive rather than reverential.
On this recording, possibly more than their previous work, Rat Boy are thieves in the finest rock’n’roll tradition, nicking the best bits from everywhere and fashioning something distinctly their own. Despite the familiar reference points from across the decades, this collection of songs don’t simply imitate bygone eras; they grab them by the collar and drag them into the present.
Eighteen tracks ought to feel excessive. Instead, they disappear in a blur of riffs and choruses and fly by in a flash! Because ‘CRASH!‘ Is a record bursting at the seams with great hooks and relatable stories.
Over its 35 minutes or so playing time, it never really lets up, and in an age increasingly obsessed with perfection, Rat Boy have made an album that is fuelled by punk’s rebellious heart, Britpop’s observational wit and the stubborn DIY ethic that built British underground music in the first place.
Makes you think that if The Clash had grown up on Essex housing estates, swapped reggae singles for skate videos, and discovered hip-hop before they discovered pub rock, they might have sounded something like this.
For all the talk of scenes, genres and generations, ‘CRASH!‘ reminds us of a much simpler truth: punk rock music is supposed to be exciting and relevant.
This is.
Get your copy of ‘CRASH!‘, out 26th June 2026 via Hellcat Records on CD or vinyl, or through your favourite streaming service HERE
- BROKEN
- HIGH LIFE
- AWAY DAYS
- BASEBALL BAT
- GUN TO MY HEAD
- SICK OF IT
- CITY BOYS
- PUBLIC WARNING
- THE RIVER
- SKELETONS
- NIGHT BUS
- BLIND
- MAKE ME STAY
- S.O.S
- DEAD END
- ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT
- REASON
- NO STARS
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Writer, lyricist, and guitarist with The Viral Breakdowns, radio presenter and passionate protagonist of Punk! From teenage rocker in the seventies, to playing my own original music in far flung parts of the world, I have a love for fast, loud, short sharp tunes with attitude and edge. Based in Chelmsford, you can find me out and about on the Essex and London music scene or rooting through the racks of record fairs, markets and car boot sales, looking for hidden punk rock treasures.
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