Newport/Cardiff/Chippenham pop punk emo five-piece Hark! A Shark! have been underwater for a decade. It was time to resurface. They went quiet in 2016, making little fuss. Natalie Cottingham, the lead singer, had just become a mother, Greg Burke was travelling for work and the band simply didn’t know how to communicate with each other anymore. The push to return came years later at the Manchester Punk Festival, when they watched Coral Springs perform at the Gorilla. Watching them reminded the band what it felt like to be a fun-loving band again. This marked the beginning of a revamped line-up, with Craig Butterworth on lead guitar and Matt Lawrence on drums. Finally, after this 10-year hiatus, they released ‘Sirens’, their first new single.
‘Sirens’ is more of a statement of intent than a reinvention. Focusing on the moment when familiarity stops feeling safe and starts feeling toxic, this new track doesn’t feature an elaborate speech about how much they’ve grown. Instead, it opens with a riff and a hook, with Natalie’s voice getting straight to the point. The lyrics capture the exhaustion that comes with a dynamic worn thin by repeated failed attempts that you cannot escape. But it is also a celebration of the clarity that comes when you finally realise that you must walk away from that ‘siren song’. Bright melodies and a fast tempo make it catchy, but the track goes further than that. Drawing on the narrative maturity of The Menzingers, the raw energy of The Bombpops and the pop-punk punch of Coral Springs, it captures the essence of their earlier work while offering a more mature and reflective perspective.
‘Sirens’ is the first single from the Very Nice, Very Evil EP, which is due out this summer. The sharks have returned from the depths, and it seems they are ready to continue telling their story.
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