By John Faussemagne
Fcukers started at the middle point of two dying indie rock bands, Spud Cannon and the Shacks. Jackson Walker Lewis, alongside Ben Scharf of Spud Cannon, decided to call it quits due to burnout from the same old indie rock music they had grown out of. They linked up with Shanny Wise who had just left a similar situation in feeling burnt out by the indie scene. The three started releasing music in 2023 under the moniker “Fcukers” (pronounced how you would expect), but it wasn’t until the 2024 track “Bon Bon” that they began to truly make waves. Around this time, Ben left the band to go back to school, and the trio became a duo. Their 2024 debut EP, Baggy, had a number of dance hits, and the band has become a favorite for Instagram accounts to mention when talking about the next big thing. They seem to be destined for stardom, especially with how their almost Eurotrash aesthetics and dance music line up perfectly with the current trends in fashion and music right now, but does their debut meet the expectations of fans ready to dance?
The album opens with a simple but addictive line of washed-out 808s from their most recent single “Beatback.” Lead singer Shanny opens the song with a short verse before almost immediately transitioning into a rhythmic pre-chorus with a bouncy and dancey beat serving as the chorus. From the opener, you immediately know what Fcukers is all about, dancey, club-ready fun. The song is a stellar opener and transitions without a stop into “L.U.C.K.Y.”
While the dance beats have helped make Fcukers a name to know in the dance world, “L.U.C.K.Y” gives Shanny an opportunity to show off her vocal ability. The song has a gorgeous vibe with some truly spectacular buildups bringing you from chorus to chorus.
Once again, Fcukers opts to go right into the next song, truly making the album feel like hit after hit, giving you little room to breathe, but tons of room to dance.
The follow-up track “butterflies” is my favorite on the project. It features a synth that gets you moving before the drum breaks even come in. The song seems like it’ll be a nice relaxed track to bop your head to, but transitions to fast house for the chorus. Here, Fcukers show off their ability to move between different genres of dance music seamlessly, blending the two styles perfectly.
“If you wanna party, come over to my house” follows and serves as the group’s most popular single from their pre-album run. The song is catchy and has tons of elements that can be looped, manipulated, and messed around with for the thousands of DJs who are sure to use this song in their FLX-4 pregame DJ sets. I mention this because, I think this is a big reason why Fcukers works so well right now. Sure, the tracks are catchy, but they do a great job of fitting the vibe of the current dance scene. Everyone wants to be a DJ, and so many of these tracks are perfect for your friend pulling up with a DJ controller he bought a week ago and is bringing to the pregame.
The follow-up “Play Me” shows Fcukers getting down with a beat reminiscent of the British dance scene. This scene has been filled with songs that feature similar drum patterns that seemingly evolved from jungle and drum & bass, but take away a lot of the in-between drum hits. Here, the group pairs it with a heavy bassline and catchy samples and it works well. Every song up to this point has gotten faster and faster, and I can notice my head moving along as the tempo speeds up. This, however, changes with “shake it up.”
“Shake it up” slows the beat down and gives you a moment to get your hips and shoulders into it. Shanny delivers enchanting vocals, directing the listener to “shake it up.” The lyrics go so well with the vibe of the song as it truly gives you an extra quarter second between beats to shake it up.
“Shake it up” ends the A-side, and when you flip the record, you’re met with “I Like it Like That,” a song that further exemplifies what Fcukers does so well in pairing bouncy rhythms with infectious lyrics. The song starts chorus driven and almost invites you from the start to sing along, and by the second verse, you are. The song draws some heavy inspiration from reggae sonically, and Shanny is bringing the beach to you with the lyrics. The reggae inspiration continues with “ttygf.”
“ttygf” is a full-on dub song that sticks out from the rest of the tracklist like a sore thumb. I wish I could say I see what they were going for, but the song doesn’t work at all. Shanny misses the mark vocally and I wish I could say it is at least catchy. Have you ever seen the old video of Björk talking about computers, explaining how electronic music only lacks soul when musicians don’t put their heart into it? That’s the best way I could think to describe this. It feels like a soulless attempt at creating reggae/dub.
The next song “lonely” is another favorite of mine, reminiscent of some old-school 1990s Atlanta Bass. While a lot of the songs throughout the album feel manicured for dance rooms, this one feels like something they made for themselves. The piano synth used during the bassier sections specifically gives tons of texture to the song.
The penultimate “getaway” starts off by sampling a jazzy bass that has been filtered out and placed alongside a jungle beat. The beat is nothing crazy, but Shanny delivers a worse vocal performance than she does on “ttygf.” It almost sounds like the beat was created, and they knew they would put vocals in, but didn’t really know what to do. Simply put, she feels severely out of place here.
This brings us to the finale, “feel the real,” which serves as a great closer to the album. Throughout the review, I have continued to use words like infectious, catchy, and enchanting. While Ö is these things, that doesn’t necessarily contribute to the quality of the songs. I could see this album being divisive in the same way some of the recent EPs by the band After were (example of what I mean in the comments here). The songs are catchy, but the vibe feels manufactured. As dance music and club culture have been a huge part of mainstream music the past few years, some artists feel like regulars while others feel like passersby. “Feel the real” is an incredibly catchy ending, don’t get me wrong, but it feels manufactured to be a song playing in a movie as the camera flies away.
The project sets out what it wants to do, creating hits for clubbers and pregame dancers alike. So much of it is truly catchy and Fcukers does a great job of blending so many different subgenres of dance music together, but I can’t help but feel a false sense of enjoyment. There are some truly stellar tracks like “butterflies” and “lonely” that break this mold and do feel real, but oftentimes Ö makes me question if I’m dancing for enjoyment, or because I am being programmed to.
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