Death From Above 1979: The Physical World track-by-track

In June, Death from Above 1979 singer, lyricist and drummer Sebastien Grainger joked to NME that if the press don’t like their new record, it’s their own fault because they’ve been “fucking asking for it.” Today, speaking from his home in Los Angeles, Grainger wants to clear something up. “We didn’t make this record because people wanted us to or because we saw some sort of commercial opportunity,” he says. “We made this record because it felt right.” The duo may have taken their time waiting for the opportune moment – it’s been 10 years since the release of their only previous album, cult classic ‘You’re A Woman, I’m A Machine’ – but ‘The Physical World’ comfortably delivers on a decade’s worth of expectations. It’s a dance record for punks and a punk record for dancers, marked by bassist Jesse F. Keeler’s muscular riffing and Grainger’s subversive lyrical wit. Their combination of powerful, complex musicianship and great rock’n’roll song-writing continues to mark them as a band. “When we started out we were coming out of a scene that was about math-rock and various subgenres of hardcore,” explains Grainger. “We wanted to be as straight-ahead as possible. We wanted to be the AC/DC of hardcore. That’s still one of our goals.”