Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Never mind the sound of the suburbs, or even the underground, at times what we really need to take notice of is kept out of sight from us, intentionally perhaps, by design – absolutely, and if we are to affect a Sea Change, then we need to do more than say we have listened to those suffering most, we need prove it, we need to declare that every tower block, every neighbourhood, communities up and down the country and worldwide, every person who has been left behind and whose story can be told, is given the stand, the moment, in which to state firmly that those who intentionally silence a life should pay for it in kind.
Such a move may be seen as incendiary, explosive, but in the same way that fiscal situations have been exacerbated by the ongoing health situation, so the need for financial redress goes hand in hand with balancing the book on social inequality, of downgrading extreme political will and the dogma of the one percent and ushering the Sea Change from root to branch and with immediate effect.
For BAIT, the world’s hiatus has seen them embrace their own destiny and put into practise all they have argued for, and in their debut album, Sea Change, the restrictions on society’s less fortunate rampage fully with the post punk ethic espoused in the lyrics that make the experience immersive, consuming, it tells of fire and rage, it finds range in the sadness, in the poetic journey of the everyman and the feminist drama that demands, rightfully, equal billing, support and measure.
Not everything is meant to be about subtly, and as the album continues, so the truth of the matter is exposed, and one that tracks such as My Tribe, TV Personality, No Sleeping For Light Sleepers, Sugarlumps, and the dramatic We Will Learn To Bark exemplify is about pushing the lungs beyond the meek gesture of thanks and into an arena of expelling demons, of pushing beyind the boundary imposed, and one that should never be allowed to be silenced.
To fight is a right, to display passion is a human justification of will, and for BAIT it the ripping apart of conscious displays of totalitarianism, of insisting that the revolution must be heard.
A drama filled sound, an album that understands the consequences of the road we are travelling, the bait is set, it just remains to be seen if we will attack the hook that feeds.
Ian D. Hall