NEW ALBUM | CRACKUPS - Plexi

Belgian punk outfit CRACKUPS releases new album ‘Plexi’ 

Four years after Greetings From Earth, Belgian garage punk rock band CRACKUPS return with third album ‘Plexi’, another bombshell and perfect example of the band as we know them: insanely fast, tight, seriously loud and with a keen sense of melody and ear for detail.

Not long after the release of debut album Animals on Acid in 2011 and much to everyone’s surprise, CRACKUPS went on indefinite hiatus, only adding to the cult status they had quickly gained. When they hit the studio again years later for sophomore album Greetings From Earth (2020), the result was the equivalent of a quadruple shot of espresso: vigorous garage punk in seven songs and less than 18 minutes, every single one a raging wrecking ball.

Now there’s third album ‘Plexi’, clearly injected with the same shot of adrenaline as its predecessors. Take opening track ‘The Phallus’, super-fast textbook psych punk, taking the mickey out of the typical dick-waving alpha male. Don’t look for a handbrake on the album, by the way, as CRACKUPS still don’t have one. It’s still no-nonsense and no secrets, inspired by a record collection that could be their parents’, where Black Flag meets Devo. Halfway through the album, the instrumental title track provides something we could liberally describe as a breather, including a delicious Dick Dale-like surf rock twang. And off we go for part two, including singles ‘Sgt. Haze’ and ‘Plane Crash’, powerful garage punk rock that got lots of alternative airplay in Belgium and was even picked up by the renowned Seattle-based radio KEXP and international Spotify editorial ‘All New Punk’. Also typical CRACKUPS: the tongue that stays in cheek for most of the album, like on ‘S.A.TA.N.’, old school 60s garage rock à la The Sonics or The Animals, including backings by the band members’ partners and children. ‘Plexi’ stands for transparency, honesty, cutting the crap. CRACKUPS can see through you, and the opposite also holds true: what you see is what you get.

With this record, the band hopes to follow in the footsteps of examples and like-minded acts such as Amyl and The Sniffers, The Chats, Wine Lips or King Gizzard, and knock on the gates of international breakthrough and fame. They will be playing a bunch of shows in the coming months, following their triumphant set at Pukkelpop. And no doubt the album release show at Trix in Antwerp (BE) on November 29 is going to be a bomb.