Soft Play – formally Slaves – re-emerge onto the post-punk scene and drop their latest single – Punk’s Dead.
The song hones in on the stick and hate the band received after their suitable name change earlier this year: it is full of real online hate comments the duo received and fan messages received via voice note. Their lyrics are extremely tongue in cheek – poking fun at those who have doubted their return under the new name – it is a satirical song for the punk community.
No one is a fan of change – and Soft Play aims in their new song to force audiences to get used to this new era. With punk-heavy and shredding guitars as the intro for the song, they sing: “I don’t like change / Punk’s dead,” which highlights the ridiculous hate the band received. “Thought you were rowdy / Thought you were punk,” pokes fun at the punk subculture – being an opposition to authority. Soft Play fans think that the suitable name change means the band are no longer punk – when in reality, it has given the band and the song a new lease of life and introduced many new listeners to the band. The duo do not care about the hate – they think it is funny.
Keen listeners can hear a special guest in this track – that is right – it is the boy band reject Robbie Williams himself – a questionable yet fitting feature for the comeback of the punk duo. Not only is Robbie on the track – there is a name drop of punk legend – Johnny Rotten – it feels like this track is embezzled with many punk-rock references to reassure audiences that Soft Play remains the same band. The Soft Play twang remains – they are inherently the same band – they are back and better than ever with Punk’s Dead.
