Man/Woman/Chainsaw release debut album Cannonball

Man/Woman/Chainsaw have released their debut album, Cannonball, via Fiction Records, recorded at RAK Studios with producers Seth Evans, who has also worked with Geordie Greep and black midi, and Margo Broom, known for her work with Fat White Family and Big Joanie. DIY reviewer Sophie Flint Vazquez gave the record four stars.

The London six-piece features three alternating lead vocalists, Billy Ward, Emmie-Mae Avery and Vera Leppanen, alongside Clio Harwood on violin, Lola Cherry on drums and Billy Doyle on guitars. DIY says Cannonball turns down the "exuberant overload" of the band's earliest releases without switching the intensity off entirely, folding pop sensibilities into what was previously a wall of violins and cascading vocals.

Avery sings lead on "Nosedive," which she describes as being about "longing for both comfort and freedom simultaneously in a relationship," built around the metaphor of an injured bird needing shelter. Leppanen takes lead on closer "Something Else to Give," about "exerting yourself for someone who doesn't reciprocate the effort," which she says was written "kind of in a flash" and felt like the obvious way to end the record.

The review hears a wide range of reference points across the album: the haziness of Pink Floyd and the vocal tone of Nick Cave on "Goddamn, Lizard Man!," LCD Soundsystem in the staccato synths of "Nosedive," and the same "organised chaos" as black midi, a band they share producer Seth Evans with. DIY calls the record "full of genuine ideas, genuine energy, and genuine feeling," while noting the question of whose ideas, energy and feeling drives it is one their next record will need to answer.

Man/Woman/Chainsaw are touring UK venues this fall, including Gorilla in Manchester on September 22, part of a run that also includes their biggest London headline show yet. Cannonball joins the rest of the year's rock and indie releases in the release calendar.