From the pubs of Newcastle to your speakers, this record kicks life in the teeth.
Steel City rockers East Coast Low return with a vengeance on their third full-length album Badlanding, a record that manages to both embrace the grit of their Newcastle roots and elevate their sound into new, soul-infused territory.
Out today via Crankinhaus Records, Badlanding is a bold, swaggering statement from a band that has spent the past decade honing their sound in Australia’s pubs, practice rooms, and rock dive bars.
East Coast Low are no overnight sensation. Since forming in 2015, they’ve embodied the working-class ethos of Newcastle’s music scene: raw, loud, and unapologetically real.
You feel this album in every riff, every lyric, and every drum hit. Their earlier records, Open The Sky (2017) and Seas on Fire (2019), showed flashes of their intent: rugged, melodic pub rock with punch and poetry.
But with Badlanding, the band takes that foundation and builds something bigger. Thanks to the production wizardry of Rob Younger, the album achieves a tight but explosive sound that amplifies the band’s fire without smoothing out the edges.
Lead single “Midnight Dancer” sets the tone as a funky, horn-laced soul-rock anthem that feels like a call to arms. “We’re gonna make you dance, make ya pay, give ya hell!” sneers Cornish, and the band backs it up with swagger and soul.
The addition of a full brass section, including legends like Rudi Thomson (X-Ray Spex, The Jam) and Rob Parkes, adds depth and swing to tracks that already burn hot. There’s a strut here that recalls Aussie rock greats, but also nods to Motown grit and New Orleans heat.
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Despite the added instrumentation, this is still very much a rock record. There’s no shortage of roaring guitars, gritty vocal lines, or rhythm section thunder. But there’s maturity too. These aren’t just barroom bangers; they’re songs forged in life’s tougher moments, songs for people who’ve lived a little and lost a lot.
East Coast Low aren’t trying to be clever, they’re trying to be true. And in that, they succeed. Big.
