Review | Legss – Unreal

Label: Self-Released

By Regan Charteris

London’s very own brilliant art-rock band, Legss, release their highly anticipated debut album, ‘Unreal’. Following the sounds cultivated in their 2023 EP ‘Fester‘, Legss continue to master the art of brooding lyrics matched with a maddening sense of unrest, further developing their satirical edge. Legss‘ ‘Unreal‘ conquers a narrative highlighting a first-person observation slowly descending into madness.

The debut album opens with ‘Broadcast‘, a softly spoken introduction to the diverse themes within the album itself: the tragic and the comic. Ned Green’s vocals echo the haunting guitar strings that follow each melting word. Two minutes into ‘Broadcast‘ and we are met with an instant change in perspective, where stronger vocals are layered over a heavy weight of guitar and drums. This subtle break in heaviness is shortened by a light shining through the clouds. Green’s vocals elevate into the wholly unique sound that reflects a narrative of the uncanny reflections of everyday life. ‘Broadcast‘ is a prolific opening ballad for Legss‘ debut album, as it embodies a darkly satirical drive from their 2019 EP ‘Writhing Comedy‘. ‘Unreal‘ would not be what it is without this opening track as its prologue.

‘Sleepers, Awake‘ opens with a visual narrative of Green’s exchange on a local bus. He exposes himself to claiming the moral high ground throughout the first verse. We listen to him tell a story of him thanking the bus driver (rather loudly), but by doing so, his narrative involves conspicuous display of moral behaviour, demonstrating his virtue and his admiration of gaining social approval. We then move to a café setting, where he again is participating in performative activism by “reading” a book. ‘Sleepers, Awake‘ is one of the most transparent visual narratives that I have come across through music that identifies these desires for social validation. It offers ethical and moral questions: why do we actively perform for other people? If we did not perform for others, would these actions still be valuable to the world? This track emphasises an idea that this individual’s primary motivation is to showcase their “goodness” within the world. ‘Sleepers, Awake‘ offers complex narratives on human emotions that truly could be critically analysed in a psychology university course. I could keep going on this track – but for the sake of the rest of the album, I’ll stop here.

‘Silo‘ hauntingly grows into the albums soothing yet eerie interlude. The track begins with an unnerving whistling sound, shadowed by a slow bass drum beat which leads the listener into a plunging hole of abnormality. ‘Silo‘ acts as the mid way point through the album, where you find yourself stopping in a still motion and turn around carefully just to see how far you’ve come. It truly encompasses the iteration of Legss‘ new found musical vulnerability, reflecting a sound that unveils the unreality of life itself. This track gives the listener a moment to breath, and prepare for what may be lurking over the hill.

“Be careful for what you wish for, it might come true” – a line from ‘Nothing Would Make Me Happier‘, the eighth track on the album. Greens lyrics draw attention to fawning away from nine-to-five routines as he engages in a whimsical thought of playing house like a child under a merry-go-round. While growing up on the playground, children often ‘played house’ asserting themselves into a routine that would have been so foreign to them at a young age. Green constructs a strong image of the capitalist world that we cannot shy away from as he states: “It’s the meek and the wily, who inherent the earth, so I sack to work”. Legss reflect on living in the capital city at this awkward age in your 20s, referring it to a “starless city”. They offer a strong insight on the chaos of capitalism in the city of London, where its work to live type environment within its concrete skyscrapers.

Swinging side by side as a more tender anthem on the album, ‘When Will I See You Again‘, is motioned with the appraise of a compassionate guitar melody. Truth, rawness, and love loss are themes that Legss explore throughout this fragile track – offering us an insight on the stitches that welded up a once open wound.

‘Bit Rot‘ opens with an attitude of living life repeatedly in a “negative space” as described by Green. Upon listening to this track a minute in, you are hit with weight on your back that is drawn from what sounds like endless layers of vocals and percussion. The anxiety-driven moment hits at 00:01:25, almost acting as a vulnerable proxy for this negative space that is imagined. While it’s not the final track to close out the album, the accelerating vocals layered with the heavy instruments offers a new spectacle into where this album was intended to go from the very beginning. Green closes the track by singing a simple “La-dee-da” pop vocal, flipping the discourse of the song on its back. Again, Legss are identifying incredibly eloquently, the core theme of the album itself: the tragic and the comic.

The closing track of the album, ‘Fugue‘, opens with a broken accordion melody that begins then takes pause to fidget lightly, then restarts its journey. The slight noise that ushers in the first few seconds, is reminiscent of the sound of a tape being inserted into an audio tape recorder. Although this is the final track on the album, it offers an idea that perhaps this is the real beginning of this entire narrative that Legss have created in their craftsmanship. While drawing themes of what feels like living in alternate realities that are just the sore bruises of capitalist tendencies, the discourse of once being an ignorant child, and the idealistic being of what it means to be a human in social settings where everyone is wanting to be perceived in a specific way – ‘Fugue‘ captures this complete sensation through an entirely instrumental closing track. Offering audiences to listen to this album in any direction that they wish.