White Lung used to be a hardcore band. They made brash, unapologetic punk music that confronted its listeners by drowning them in assertive, nofucksgiven attitude. But on Paradise, White Lung prove themselves to be capable of so much more than that. This is an album that transcends anything the band released before; the hooks are heavier, the production is cleaner, and Mish Barber-Way’s vocal range is bigger. “Every new record should be the best work you’ve ever done,” she told us in our cover story. On Paradise, that offhanded comment doesn’t sound boastful or empty. It’s a statement of fact Mish Barber-Way … and her crew of Vancouver punk ruffians whip up a gloriously hostile racket, sharpening the raw attack of their 2014 breakthrough, Deep Fantasy. The songs gain a mammoth melodic crunch thanks to guitar whiz Kenny William, who sounds like Johnny Marr with his cardigan on fire.
Every now and then, there comes a band that reminds you why you fell in love with rock & roll in the first place. In 2016, White Lung was that band, and “Paradise” was the record. It’s a synthesis of everything that I love about the genre and its many subsets– soaring pop hooks, thrash-tastic riffs and drumming, gleaming post-punk atmosphere, and lyrical narratives. Like Japandroids and Titus Andronicus, White Lung have set the gold standard for rock music in the 21st century.
