Review | The Rills – Don’t Be A Stranger

Label: Nice Swan Records

By Seth White

The Rills were, at least from my foggy memory, a band that gained a notable chunk of viewership and attention through an explosive and viral social media presence beginning in the COVID era that lasted for a short while before significantly fizzling out and disappearing from the comfort zone of the social media algorithms.

I was always a fan of their early work, such as ‘Pyro’ and ‘Stardog’ to be specific. But when The Rills resurfaced on my ‘For You Page’ they looked all different. They had different haircuts and were wearing funny red racing suits… I was understandably interested in what the band had decided to transition towards.

Their new record is infectious indie rock and is unapologetic in its objectives to regain the traction the band deserves; that’s the aim of the game these days. Bands are back to the drawing board, writing songs that may have a catchy enough 15 second snippet to make it go big on TikTok or something similar – it’s a cruel and competitive game, but The Rills aren’t backing down on this occasion.

The record has a mix of all assortments of wonderfully marketable indie magic. You can dance to this record in several different modes: slow-dancing to the ballad ‘Stranger‘; headbanging to ‘Seasick‘ and moshpitting to ‘I Don’t Wanna Be’.

The production (Dave McCracken) of the album is extremely crisp, clear and professional and will sound mega out of almost all speakers; it sounded brilliant in my audio-nerd headphones. There are great moments on each song – I particularly enjoyed the Libertines-inspired track ‘POV’ that sports some poetic Peter Doherty style vocals and the following bouncy indie bop ‘Bones’ that sounds like it covered been a lost B-side off of ‘Favourite Worst Nightmare’ or something similar.

The Rills have for sure got the tunes. But have they got the charisma? The answer is a definite yes. February-March 2025 sees their UK album tour in full swing, whilst they just finished up a round of in-store tour dates the week after the release of the album, spanning all the Rough Trade branches in the UK, and a homecoming show in Lincoln, the hometown of two thirds of the bands’ lineup.

All in all, this album is The Rills’ first punt at an album release and, by all accounts, they’ve given it a good go. I wouldn’t say anything on this album blew me away completely. I hate to categorise something as a bit ‘run of the mill’ but that’s what this record is teetering on slightly for me.

We know The Rills are brilliant musicians and performers, but maybe they need another release or so to fully capture their intent and energy onstage into a recording. What I can respect The Rills for is picking their sound and aesthetic and reinventing their image in this way. In the current music climate that’s something that is often very difficult and comes with a sacrifice of your accumulated online notoriety that bands often cling to in the modern day.

If The Rills are playing in your town next year, get out there and have a good old boogie to their songs, new and old. Bring a friend or two with you and make a night out of it. If The Rills have conveyed anything to me it’s that they love their live audiences and work tirelessly to put on a show, which is reason enough to show out for them. Don’t be a stranger!