Album review: Upchuck – I’m Nice Now

Atlanta punks Upchuck don’t just play songs: they spit venom, grind teeth and slam their fists against the rotting walls of America. On their third album, I’m Nice Now, the band sound like they’ve swallowed every injustice and vomited it back as pure punk fury. They take on the subjects of racism, sexism, classism and the whole ugly scaffolding of modern-day oppression and use their anger to add more fuel to their already fired-up punk sensibilities.

Opener Tired is an unflinching rallying cry. It’s the exhaustion of existing in a society built to grind you down, flipped into a giant middle finger at the powers that have constructed the foundations we’re expected to adhere to. Vocalist Kaila ‘KT’ Thompson doesn’t just carry rage in her voice, she embodies it with her sharp, ragged, human tones. And when drummer/vocalist Chris Salado jumps to the mic for Homenaje and Un Momento, singing in Spanish, it feels like a cultural reclamation, showing punk’s snarling edge to use their music for a greater good. These tracks are anthemic, if doused in a distorted barrage of punk aggression.

It’s Forgotten Token that cuts deepest. Written in the aftermath of KT’s sister’s death, it’s a gut-punch meditation on grief, commodification, and how people are devalued both in life and in death. Amid the band’s explosive noise, it feels like the record’s bleeding heart.

Ty Segall’s production keeps everything raw, live-to-tape and bristling with danger. Slow Down drips with 1970s Stooges grime, dragging you through sleaze and smoke, before closer Nowhere detonates in one last storm of serrated guitars, which acts as a final, furious fuck-you aimed squarely at a crooked system.

This is punk as it was always meant to be: loud, ugly, righteous and alive. I’m Nice Now isn’t just an album, it’s a survival tactic, a soundtrack to resistance in a country still burning.

Verdict: 4/5

For fans of: The Stooges, MC5, Ramones

I’m Nice Now is released on October 3 via Domino