The Chats - High Risk Behaviour

Following their breakthrough viral hit "Smoko" and 2019 Get This in Ya!! EP, Australia's the Chats continue to make good on their snarky, comedic, old-school punk promise with their debut full-length album, 2020's High Risk Behaviour. Once again showcasing the snotty, take-it-as-it-comes skills of singer/bassist Eamon Sandwith, guitarist Josh Price, and drummer Matt Boggis, High Risk Behaviour is a direct continuation of the group's first two EPs, showcasing their irreverent humor and stripped-to-the-bone punk anthems. There is also a handful of snappy and memorable tracks that have the same viral-worthy energy of "Smoko," including "Pub Feed" and "Identity Theft." There's a reliably likeable formula to the Chats' tunes that works pop wonders on songs like the opening "Stinker," in which Sandwith sings about a hot day, "the kind you can smell." Songs like these feel revelatory and lived in, like lost classics from the heyday of the late-'70s and early-'80s punk scene. There are also creative moments here that find the Chats stretching their formula, as on "Heatstroke," with its spiraling, bluesy psych intimations, or "4573," with its extended drum intro and deliciously bone-headed prog-meets-garage rock riffage. In classic punk rock tradition, many of the songs on High Risk Behaviour clock in at well under two minutes; meaning that it never drags and begs for more spins. ~ Matt Collar