Ratfink! Returns With Raw Energy on 'Plastic Bits'

The following feature is now included in our online magazine which is also available in print.

Issue #3

Melbourne's Ratfink! are back with a snappy message. New single Plastic Bits, the third release from the forthcoming album When U Were Mine, sees the band's unique blend of three-chord rock energy and surf pop gloss. There's a hooky catchiness to the song which reminds one of the way early garage rock could be both urgent and fun, the kind of song that catches your head on first play.

The stimulus is close to hand: the city's waterways. Afternoon spent on the Merri River's muddy banks was followed by the band considering the plastic that blanketed the landscape. That consciousness leaks into the song in little details, from the slightly out-of-tune guitar lines that mimic the disorientation of rubbish to the beat that skips like water over rocks. The album blends social observation with playfulness, proving that Ratfink! is able to speak about real-world concerns without sacrificing the energy of rock n roll.

Current fans will see the familiar hooks and brute power that have characterized their output, but new listeners might find an identical draw in how groups like The Strokes or Thee Oh Sees combine immediacy with melody. Plastic Bits is economical but powerful, a sleek primer to the more expansive soundscapes and narrative the band are venturing into with When U Were Mine. It's a reminder that rock music can still be new, paying attention, and starkly alive, even constructed out of three basic chords.

For those who dig music that blends grit and intelligent thinking, Plastic Bits is a bull's-eye. It's a song to crank up loud, to hear the city in a new way, and to get stoked on what Ratfink! has next.

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