Onlooker are from Teeside, an area that straggles the boundaries of County Durham and North Yorkshire. This wider geographical area contains Cleveland (for which this opus is named), a region with high crime rates, high rates of child education exclusion, and significant poverty, often ranking among the most deprived areas in England. No wonder then, that this area has produced one of the best UK bands of recent years, carrying on the age old tradition of the disenfranchised venting their piss and vinegar at an empty and uncaring sky.
Cleveland is the second LP from Onlooker, and follows on from their debut LP, Total Rest (again on Serial Bowl Records) which came out back in 2022, plus a couple of EPs and splits and the like. Onlooker are a 5 piece, and are often described as playing their own brand of “no nonsense garage rock”. As fair a description as any, I suppose, if not a bit understated…
I only stumbled upon Onlooker properly in December, at the Out Of Spite / Endless Hum event in Shipley. However, they had been on the list of bands to check out that I keep on my phone for a fair while longer than that, along with many others that I’ve yet to get around to! Swiftly following on from that live encounter, I picked up Total Rest, and I’ve been eagerly anticipating Cleveland, which Darren who runs Serial Bowl Records has been kind enough to pass on a vinyl copy for review.
Onlooker present differently (to me) on record than they do live. Live it’s a visceral onslaught of off-kilter twitchy energy delivered with gleeful brute force; in that environment I’m put in mind of the Keith Morris-led troupe of former Black Flag members (plus one Descendent – Steve Egerton) that came over a fair few years back performing under the ‘Flag’ moniker.
On record, we get a much more nuanced understanding of what’s going on. I’d remind folk at this juncture that interpretations are subject to whatever the listener has previously been exposed to. Personally, I’ve been knocking around for almost 49 years at this point, so I feel like I have a fair spread listening to pull from.
The first thing that strikes me from the first play through of Cleveland is that (perhaps not ridiculously) if the Arctic Monkeys had been listening to Drive Like Jehu and the Circle Jerks, they might’ve sounded something like this. Maybe it works the other way around, too. There’s something in the spazz electrified energy in combination with barked out epithets in an unashamedly local accent. Don’t worry, they aren’t singing about chip shops and that – Cuppa Tea is the only song coming close to Arctic Monkeys territory – there’s an obvious expression of existential dread metaphorically presented in something immediately relatable and identifiable in it’s very everyday seeming nature. Genius.
I’m going to leap back in time to the early – mid 2000s now. Some of the older heads here might remember bands like This Ain’t Vegas and The Paper Cut-Out and such like. Listening to Cleveland, I get strong reminders of that jerky post hardcore sound that drew heavily on 80s and 90s Dischord Records bands running through the whole gamut from Nation of Ulysses to Fugazi and Embrace (not the crap one from Huddersfield).
There’s some real vibes going on here. From the opening licks of album opener Formula Tofu, Onlooker seem to be setting out their stall with intent. The panicked desperation of Black Flag’s Nervous Breakdown 7in springs to mind. Progressing through Sit Tight, to the album closer, Status Quo, a real sense of foreboding builds, coupled with a sense of gritting your teeth, putting your head down, eyes closed, weathering the shit-storm of day-to-day fatigue and misery. Dare I say the fear of not being enough?
The musical tone seems really well thought out. Bright guitar tones, weirdly reminiscent of Elvis Costello juxtaposed with the dark, furious and thunderous paranoia of bands like Poison Idea and Long Knife. Fucking inspired, mate. All this with a strangely eloquent televangelist on crack ranting and raving over the top (at least that’s how I imagine it) makes for a real deal of a package.
At the moment, Cleveland and the new Down and Outs LP, Disconnect (Brassneck Records) are tied for album of the year for me. It seems there is hope afterall for truly great music in 2026, after a somewhat patchy start.
Tony of Nurgle rating: 10/10
You can pick up the LP of Cleveland from the Serial Bowl Records bandcamp page, or from an Onlooker gig.
