Problem Patterns are back, and they’re not here to make you comfortable. With their latest single, ‘Sad Old Woman’, the Belfast queerpunk icons rip into society’s warped obsession with youth, beauty, and keeping women in their place – with a grin, a growl, and a guest spot from none other than Pissed Jeans’ Matt Korvette.
Built around snarling riffs and a lurching, sarcastic swagger, ‘Sad Old Woman’ feels like a bar fight in the cosmetics aisle. The band tackles the absurd pressures on aging women with equal parts fury and farce, flipping the script on ageism with sharp wit and glorious noise. Korvette’s grotesquely theatrical cameo as the voice of the “inner saboteur” is an inspired touch – one more punch thrown in a track that doesn’t hold back.
Problem Patterns have always been a band that celebrates the catharsis of shouting back, and this is them at their most deliciously defiant. It’s camp, it’s clever, and it’s catchy as hell. Coming hot off the heels of their Northern Irish Music Prize win and a growing wave of international hype, ‘Sad Old Woman’ is a reminder that no one does feminist punk quite like this lot.