There’s a quiet tension running through Little White Hair, the kind that hums beneath the skin before a storm breaks. With their debut album, Cavan’s MUDD SHOVEL don’t bother easing listeners in, they come out swinging, dragging the grit and unease of lived experience into a sound that fuses classic rock weight with alt-rock volatility. The result is a record that feels fiercely present, wired with instinct, and unafraid to show its bruises.
The opener, “Over the Line,” bursts out like a match hitting petrol. Its riffs grind and roar, pushing forward with the reckless exhilaration of outrunning your own shadow. It’s a celebration of surpassing limits: emotionally, physically, spiritually; and it sets the tone with a punch that leaves a ringing afterglow. Then the band pivots sharply into “Third Time Today,” a track steeped in folklore unease and whispered warnings. Here, restraint becomes its own form of pressure; every space between notes feels like a held breath, every melodic flicker a glimpse of doubt.
With “Deep Fried Soul,” MUDD SHOVEL tilt into darker territory, confronting addiction with a mixture of honesty, absurdity, and bite. It’s a song that refuses to sanitize its subject, instead exposing the grit beneath the surface. “Pity Party” shifts into a rawer, more impatient energy, a brisk dismissal of emotional dead weight that snaps and burns with fed-up clarity. “Heading Home” slows the swing, returning to the places that make and unmake us, carrying nostalgia like a knife with two edges.
Temptation slithers in on “Don’t Drink the Water,” a track built on the slow pull of desire and danger. The title song, “Little White Hair,” arrives as one of the album’s most haunting entries: a meditation on isolation, unraveling gently yet leaving a deep mark. Then “Cupid Sparrow” turns everything on its head with a surge of dance-rock chaos, capturing the wild compulsion of returning to things we swore we’d outgrown. Finally, “No Further” closes the album with a firm exhale, drawing a line between growth and the people who refuse to move with you.
Across the record, the combined production of Devilla Sounds and Martin Quinn keeps every track taut but breathing, allowing the band’s unvarnished edge to shine without sacrificing clarity.
Little White Hair is a debut that trembles with truth: loud, vulnerable, and carried by the quiver of a single strand pulling everything tight!
