Adult DVD | Adult DVD [Fat Possum Records]
Dance-Punk / Electroclash / Acid House | 2026
Adult DVD make their self-titled debut with twelve songs that put the rhythm section and the synthesizers in constant conversation. The Leeds six-piece recorded and produced the album at The Nave Studios in their hometown, and the arrangements have the punch and definition needed to keep a full band audible at club volume. Drums and bass provide a firm rhythmic center. Keyboards carry much of the melodic action, while Harry Hanson's dry, half-spoken delivery gives the increasingly ridiculous lyrics a convincing straight face. The record's immediate appeal is physical, although its characters are worth listening to closely.
"Do As I Please" opens with a thick bass figure and emphatic drums before sharp synth phrases take over. Its insistence on personal gratification introduces a recurring theme. "Coffin Dodger" makes an even better case for the band's humor: a narrator wants to attend his own funeral and enjoy the catering. The playful keyboard line and repeated vocal hook give this peculiar vanity a proper chorus. "Cold Caller" turns a scammer's sales patter into danceable indie rock, and "Minimal Criminal" takes petty grievances to increasingly absurd conclusions. Hanson can deliver a punchline without interrupting the groove, which is a considerable part of the appeal.
On "Jesus Christ Supercar" the clipped guitar attack and busy synthesizers accompany an impressive collection of excuses for avoiding any effort. "Cowboy On Aisle Three" has a stronger emotional undertow. Its supermarket protagonist reaches a breaking point during an ordinary shopping trip, and the forceful refrain carries genuine frustration beneath the joke. The guitars and keys stay tightly synchronized, giving the chorus enough melodic shape to survive well beyond the novelty of the premise.
The brief "The Steaks Are High" arrives as a deliberately slight comic interlude. "World's Best Boss" is sharper, giving a petty workplace tyrant a chant-ready vocal line and a stubbornly repetitive rhythm. Its jokes about stolen office supplies work because the song understands how small assertions of power can dominate daily life. "All I Need" brings a breakup and a Cher reference into the same bluntly comic perspective. The writing is most effective when the narrator's behavior supplies the criticism without the band spelling out a moral.
The sequencing becomes increasingly electronic near the end. "Ghillie Suit" stretches its largely instrumental breakbeats over four minutes, developing an insistent pulse ahead of "Real Tree Lee". That track targets a conspiracy-minded man whose aggressive certainty and isolation are spelled out in unflattering detail. A driving bass part and piercing synth repetitions keep the account tense. There is genuine nastiness in the portrait, and Hanson's detached delivery lets it register without theatrical outrage.
Closer "Rolling Face" is the album's most complete commitment to acid house and rave. Across five minutes, pounding breaks and cycling keyboard patterns sustain a long-form build while Hanson follows a salaried worker through a disastrous night out. The length gives the electronic arrangement room to develop. Its increasingly forceful repetition is effective precisely because earlier songs have worked in compact verses and choruses. The final track also reveals where Adult DVD could push their sound further, with extended instrumental passages that retain the group's rhythmic precision.
The main limitation is sustained intensity. Several mid-album songs occupy a similar tempo range, and Hanson's narrow vocal delivery loses some of its comic timing when the keyboards remain busy throughout. Stronger dynamic variation would give individual arrangements greater definition. Even so, the debut has tightly constructed hooks and a consistent point of view about vanity, work, alienation and self-deception. Adult DVD know exactly how to build a rhythm people can dance to, and their best songs remain funny after the punchlines are familiar.
Rating: [4/5]