By Alex Salisbury
For the majority of us we are but a cog in the global machine, a small and simple piece of engineering utilised to do a job until we fracture under the pressure or are no longer fit for purpose. At that point we’re simply replaced by the next Average Joe filing into the rat race to take up our previous mantle in the 9-5 groundhog day we call modern life.
We do all of this to scrape by and make ends meet, whilst someone further up the line sits back, smoking a fat cigar and reaping all the major financial benefits. And so it has been for centuries.
This view of our ‘normal’ working situation is the subject of Newcastle’s own Crux. Their latest single ‘Slaving Away’ is a witty, observational, politically relevant 12-bar jam detailing the daily grind we all go through and the absurdity of it all.
Although the track is somewhat simple and repetitive, it replicates the monotonous grind of our work schedules perfectly, this doesn’t mean it’s boring at all. Every aspect of the track musically is excellent, janky guitars, simple yet effective lyrical content delivered with venom, great bass work and solid drums throughout.
The song is complimented with a great lyric video featuring Andy Power-Tate playing that aforementioned cigar-smoking, fat-cat politician, laughing and dancing all the way to the bank.
Throughout the video are featured some hard to face facts about our country and the terrible mess it’s in after decades of political and economical neglect for numerous sections of the population.
Fans of Life, Shame, Cabbage or any number of the new wave of acerbic-witted British post-punks will be thoroughly at home here with Crux’s sound on this track, it’s well worth a listen and should firmly place this four-piece on your radar.
Listen to ‘Slaving Away’ here:
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