Dream Nails – Doom Loop | Album Review

London queer punks Dream Nails return with a more refined sound that doesn’t distract from their DIY aesthetics or feminist messaging on their standout sophomore album Doom Loop.

Despite only having one full length album released Dream Nails have already cemented themselves as mainstays of the UK’s flourishing queercore scene. Since forming back in 2015 the quartet have used their furious punk sound as a vehicle for their passionate political messaging. On Doom Loop their aim is squarely focused on gender in all its forms, whether toxic or euphoric, all delivered through ten catchy, varied punk tracks.

Dream Nails waste no time, grabbing the listener by the scruff of the neck and making sure they’re paying attention with album opener and lead single ‘Good Guy’. Frontperson Ishmael Kirby’s incredibly direct vocal style shines on this track, addressing the audience directly with a confident swagger, tearing down fake allies in a way that works perfectly alongside the song’s stomping beat. From the first note of the album Dream Nails make it clear that Doom Loop is something special, distilling their raw passion for queer and feminist social causes into a polished, listenable half hour of punk bangers.

The production on Doom Loop deserves plenty of praise, it taking the energy of Dream Nails’ live shows and the band’s heated political messaging to an entirely new level to their previous work, which always had a rough, DIY edge. Producer Ross Orton, known for his work on AM by Arctic Monkeys and Amyl And The Snifters’ self-titled second album, elevates the album with crisp, subtle production that keeps the focus on the band. Doom Loop has a fantastic dynamic range with Dream Nails understanding that, for their bombastic choruses and political lyrics to have any impact, they need just as many contrasting moments of quiet.

A highlight of Doom Loop is the track ‘Geraniums’, a stripped down, emotionally charged, riff fuelled punk song focused around gender envy in male dominated music scenes. Guitarist Anya Pearson carries this track with a simple, earworm guitar riff while Kirby’s lyrics recount growing up around bands but not being included because of their assigned gender at birth. With some of the album’s tracks like the winding, complex ‘Monster’ get a little too convoluted for the band’s punk ethos, it’s fantastic to hear that Dream Nails are still happy to throw down a blistering two and a half minute track like ‘Geraniums’.

Doom Loop isn’t simply an evolution of Dream Nails’ sound, more a total reinvention. While not straying from their punk roots on tracks like ‘Geraniums’, ‘She’s Cutting My Hair’ and ‘Femme Boi’. the band do find time to explore unfamiliar territory with the more subdued ‘Sometimes I Do Get Lonely Yeah’, a hip-hop tinged, bass driven track eloquently chronicling a young man’s descent into misogyny through online incel forums, or the piano ballard closer ‘Time Ain’t No Healer’. Not content to let the album live or die on their tried and tested formula of blazing queer and feminist punk, Dream Nails break free of genre restrictions without losing sight of what makes them great.

On their standout sophomore album Doom Loop, Dream Nails passionately and concisely break down topics like gender euphoria, toxic masculinity and false allyship to a stomping punk beat without losing momentum in these complex topics. Bringing their sound to an exciting new level with polished production and brilliantly punchy songwriting, Dream Nails deliver not only the best music of their career so far but one of the most important punk releases of the year.