Drug Church – Prude

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Drug Church – Prude

★★★☆

Released October 4th, 2024 on Pure Noise Records

Drug Church is more than a little familiar. Yeah, you’ve heard Prude before. It doesn’t break any new ground. It’s ten concise blasts of pop-punk fury – emphasis more on the punk than the pop, here – that come in and out in under half an hour. You can tell what the influences are. It’s a little bit Fucked Up, a little bit Gaslight Anthem. It’s a lot of bands you’ve probably heard a lot before. Bang out three chords in under three minutes, and you’re well on your way to success.

With that said, it’s impossible to say that it’s bad, in any way. Earlier, I wrote about Trace Mountains, talking about being derivative. In that case, derivative was bad. Here, it really works for the band. You can tell that Drug Church know their stuff inside and out. They know how to hit the right beats to get a live crowd amped for more. The vocals are pure Damian Abraham, but marginally cleaner. It’s the same shout-and-declaim style, but poppier. Someone poke Emily Haines and ask her what she thinks. Better yet, don’t. She might complain about not getting the Polaris for synth pop instead.

So, here we have some more ‘pop-core’, as salty Canadians might put it. It’s not novel. Definitely not cerebral. It’s not the first thing you might think of when you hear the word ‘art.’ It is, however, a whole lot of fun. It’s the perfect sort of sound for that mid-festival slot, where energy is flagging and you need something boisterous to get you through to the headliners. Drug Church is a lot like a 3 PM coffee in that sense. They have big buzzy guitars, hard-but-clean vocals, and a songwriting style that never outlasts its welcome. They’ll leave you refreshed, and ready for whatever comes next.

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