Here to gift us 39 minutes of sheer, unadulterated punk-rock from Glasgow, Gallus are a band you need to get very familiar with. The Marshall Records signees have been going for strength to strength for a while now, playing various major shows abroad, as well as the coveted SXSW festival in Texas. 

The only time I’ve had the pleasure of seeing them was during a sort of crawling-out-of-Covid September at Oporto, where the Leeds crowd was modest. But you can bet they’d draw in a whopping turnout now! And based on what they’ve delivered on ‘We Don’t Like The People We’ve Become’, they’re at their best.

The killer single ‘Fruitflies’ chases up the raucous opener, ‘Moderation’; a track with a title that doesn’t conform to their evident ethos, as there’s nothing remotely restrained about this debut record. From just eyeballing what features, I’m glad to see my two favourites, ‘What Do I Know’ and ‘Marmalade’. After all, they’re far too fantastic to be dismissed from the tracklist. And they’re smartly ensconced further in, so you get to enjoy some of the fresh offerings first. 

Scuzzy guitars and thumping drums are the MO of this outfit, while on songs such as ‘Basic Instinct’, there’s a serious catchiness to the melodies. Not dissimilarly, you’ve got the punchy primary riff of ‘Going Numb’ to revel in, and the rumbles of bass-first ‘Missiles’. 

This LP has thankfully dropped in this strange era, when singles have been generally superseding albums in terms of their class. The calibre of full-lengthers hasn’t quite been as strong lately, in my book, but this is a rather fortunate change of pace. It’s also a really solid example of punk being produced properly in the modern day, even though this would’ve been storming back in the ‘80s as well. You can’t say that too fervently about all alternative material at the moment.

As you spin deeper into the album, there’s something of a token slower number in ‘Mr. Nothing’, which boasts some shoegazy, more acoustic-style sensibilities. And instead of a romping, fists-in-the-air finale, relish the fairly gentle end to proceedings on ‘Sickness and Health’. Although, it’s got a plethora of those relatable, frank lyrics — a key ingredient of the Gallus formula. 

If you only download one track, let it be: ‘What Do I Know’