Album Review: Bad Vision ‘Turn Out Your Sockets’

5-piece punk rockers Bad Vision started ripping through basements and venues around Melbourne in 2012. Their rebellious energy and fearless charisma took them to Europe on the back of a 7-inch and from that, they released their debut, self-titled album on German label Adagio 830 Records in 2013.

Bad Vision are now back with the announcement of their forthcoming sophomore album ‘Turn Out Your Sockets’ due to release May 6th. Oozing garage-rock and proto-punk with pop embellishments like Eddy Current and Jay Reatard, Bad Vision have created an album that packs a punch, contemplatively and sonically.

“We’re perpetually torn by our pop leanings and wanting to be a thrashy live punk band.”

Recorded at Purple Wayne studios in Collingwood in a burst of energy one weekend in January 2015, ‘Turn Out Your Sockets’ encapsulates a band brimming with pop hooks and razor-sharp chops. It’s the album they always wanted to make.

From the opening burner Very Melbourne, Bad Vision demonstrate that they’ve grown upwards and outwards, but not away; while their song writing is more refined, their delivery has stayed as savagely precise. Throughout ‘Turn Out Your Sockets’, lead singer Jerome Rush’s vocal remains supercharged and ready to explode.

With lead single Goons, Bad Vision have broadened and changed, but stayed the same where it matters. They’ve still got what it takes to lay a garage rock smack down. Goons is a love letter, delivered with jangly guitar lines and a raucous chorus. The kind you can lean into in your leather jacket, knowing only half the words but with the courage to yell them like you wrote the thing.

“Goons is a love letter, delivered with jangly guitar lines and a raucous chorus.”

It can be tricky to juggle the pop influences with their brash punk love, but it’s a duality Bad Vision embraces. “We wanted to show some variation in the sound. We’re perpetually torn by our pop leanings and wanting to be a thrashy live punk band,” says guitarist Krystal Maynard.

From the undeniable melodic appeal of Fairweather and Flawless People and the frenetic drive of Don’t Don’t, it’s obvious by the time ‘Turn Out Your Sockets’ comes to a close, that Bad Vision are unafraid to embrace experimentation in the realization of their own vision.

Bad Vision will be launching ‘Turn Out Your Sockets’ live at The Old Bar on Friday 3rd June with fellow Melbourne punk rockers Camp Cope, Cable Ties, and The Tropes!