''Songs of Praise'' is the debut studio album by the British

post-punk Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad genre of punk music that emerged in the late 1970s as musicians departed from punk's traditional elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a variety of avant-garde sensibilities and non-roc ...

band

Shame Shame is an unpleasant self-conscious emotion often associated with negative self-evaluation; motivation to quit; and feelings of pain, exposure, distrust, powerlessness, and worthlessness. Definition Shame is a discrete, basic emotion, d ...

, released via Dead Oceans in January 2018.

Critical reception

''Songs of Praise'' was met with widespread critical acclaim. At

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, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 83, based on 20 reviews. Reviewing for ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' in January 2018,

Will Hodgkinson Will Hodgkinson is a journalist and author from London (born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne), England. He is the chief rock and pop critic for ''The Times'' newspaper and contributes to ''Mojo'' magazine. He has written for ''The Guardian'', ''The Indepen ...

said "this album has excitement and confidence fizzing out of every song, the spirit of punk-rock defiance given an energy shot for a new generation." Eve Barlow of ''

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'' proclaimed, "the UK rock group separates themselves from their peers, imbuing their post-adolescent rage with wit and, crucially, a self-effacing awareness that they may never succeed." In ''

Mojo Mojo may refer to: *Mojo (African-American culture), a magical charm bag used in voodoo Arts, entertainment and media Film and television * MOJO HD, an American television network * ''Mojo'' (play), by Jez Butterworth, made into a 1997 film * '' ...

'', Martin Aston called ''Songs of Praise'' an "incendiary debut" from a band who are "a visceral, frayed, clanging racket but still mindful of tunes".

Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most well-known and influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and ...

was lukewarm about the album and said, although Shame can "assemble a fast rock song—I see where the honorific 'punk' comes up in their reviews of praise, but this music just isn't intense enough to merit it—their affect is devoid of any species of uplift: humor, empathy, solidarity, lyrics with a twist, all that corny stuff I retain a yen for. Formally anthemic, spiritually not is another way to put it. True enough, this has turned into a

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mindset, affliction, what have you. Part of the problem not part of the solution. Might they lift themselves out of it sometime? Hope so."

Track listing

Personnel

Shame * Charlie Steen – lead vocals * Sean Coyle-Smith – guitar; backing vocals * Eddie Green – guitar; backing vocals * Josh Finerty – bass guitar; backing vocals ; additional percussion * Charlie Forbes – drums; backing vocals Additional Performers * Holly Whitaker – backing vocals * Dan Foat – programming, keyboards * Nathan Boddy – programming, keyboards Production * Dan Foat – production * Nathan Boddy – production, mixing * Sean Genockey – engineering * Samir Alikhanizadeh – additional production * Joe Jones – assistant engineer * Paul Carr – assistant engineer * Ric Baxendale – additional engineering * Matt Colton – mastering Artwork * Holly Whitaker – photography * Miles Johnson – design

Charts

Accolades

References

{{Authority control 2018 debut albums Shame (band) albums Dead Oceans albums