shame

Following in the unflinching footsteps of musicians and writers such as the Fall, Television Personalities, and Irvine Welsh, Shame combine keen-eyed observations with a willingness to challenge themselves and their audience. Among the first in the wave of U.K. bands reinterpreting post-punk for the late 2010s and early 2020s, the South London band's bracing 2018 debut album, Songs of Praise -- which they recorded when they were barely in their twenties -- bridged the personal and political with wit and fury. Shame broadened their horizons with 2021's Drunk Tank Pink, which explored the louder and softer sides of their music while flirting with dance-punk and highlife; on 2023's Food for Worms, they took their barreling energy in even wider-ranging directions without losing their intensity.