An Album a Day #2026-18

The worst part about listening to a new album everyday is that you'll inevitably listen to something you really don't like. When I first listened to the Manchester, UK group Shaking Hand's self-title debut album, I found it so boring that I actually gave up on it half way into the second song.

If this music were a word it would be: monotonous. There's like maybe two chords. The vocal melody line has like, maybe, two notes in it. The most interesting thing is the eighth-note arpeggios in the electric guitar that repeat themselves over and over and over and over and over and.

Then some small, forgiving part of me chimed in, "You have to give it a chance. You have to finish what you started." So I put it back on.

The first three songs, "Sundance," "Mantras," and "In for a... Pound!" all sound like this

Bah-bah-bah-bah bah-bah bah-bah
Bah-bah-bah-bah bah-bah bah-bah

Bah-bah-bah
Bah-bah-bah

The only reprieve we get from the monotony is a sudden sixteenth note guitar splat in "In for a... Pound!"

It's all so devastatingly monotonous.

Until it isn't.

Something actually happens in "Night Owl," the album's fourth track. A melody! The chorus even takes us somewhere unexpected... harmonically. Rhythmically though... my God, does anyone in this band know how to divide a beat into anything other than eighth notes?

Then things improve dramatically in "Up the Ante(lope)." Finally, a song! Actual chord changes! Rhythmic variation! I even liked it!

Wait.

Did Shaking Hand pull a fast one on me? Bore me to death for twenty minutes, then I'll have to like anything with even the faintest whiff of musicality.

Nah, I'll be charitable.

But can they keep it up? What do the last two tracks, "Italics" and "Cable Ties," have to offer?

Bah-bah-bah-bah-bah-bah bah-bah-bah

Bah

Listen

What is "An Album a Day"?

Each day in 2026, I'm listening to an album that:

1. I've never heard before
2. Was released in the last six months (from the time of listening)