The Murder Capital – Can’t Pretend to Know Review

Six years has passed since The Murder Capital formed. What have they learned over that half-decade? Whatever it is will no doubt form part of their upcoming album, Blindness. It certainly provides Can’t Pretend to Know with some scope for the future, and some understanding of where they want to be. All eyes are on where The Murder Capital can go after Gigi’s Recovery. Knife-wielding scholars and post-punk performance are the go-to for this single, ripped from their third studio album. A third album is a crossroads event for any artist. It is a time when The Murder Capital must choose between consistent tones inevitably slated for the scrap heap once something further ahead comes along or a grave and rudimentary change to their sound. Somehow, they straddle both the consistency and the danger of new styles with Can’t Pretend to Know.  

Steady and driven percussion opens Can’t Pretend to Know up and The Murder Capital has it linger there, wide open with some fascinating imagery throughout. Those plastic figurines are a last-ditch attempt to keep something of your childhood alive during the fury and thunder of new momentum. The Murder Capital is keen to look back just to move forward. Adept understanding of the roles we play and how we change, what we change, to become who we are. Can’t Pretend to Know is the knowing nod to those experiences which fashion some fresh direction and pave the way for the rest of your life. This is not some quarter or mid-life crisis album but a refreshing blur of a song. Instrumental clangs and the distortion found on the guitar are essential to giving this piece some vibrancy, a unique twist of the arm where emotional strife runs wild.  

Experimental rock features on Can’t Pretend to Know, are more for the separation of project to project than anything else. It has its wilder moments; those liberated pangs of instrumental work are slick and short. A clueless element keeps Can’t Pretend to Know alive and spiralling. Those moments of doubt will creep up at the most inopportune and sudden times, and for the most part, it means a revelation. How we react to those pushes for the next steps is an essential part of this latest The Murder Capital piece and the band nails it. Reflective but not soppy, hung-up on memories but not afraid to move on from them. A necessary balance is struck and, as a result, listeners have space to reflect on themselves.  

A pretty solid song, perhaps destined to be much better in the company of other songs from Blindness, but thoroughly entertaining nonetheless. Vindication and nostalgia have no part to play in this latest piece. What matters is the sense of growth. A punk tone for The Murder Capital is no surprise and while Can’t Pretend to Know feels softly underwhelming; it is a solid continuation of an intensely interesting band. Whether they dip their toes into grunge and shoegaze-like experiences is yet to be heard – though it is a slippery slope to be perched on. Whatever the case, the band is keen not to repeat themselves. Gigi’s Recovery is one moment of many for The Murder Capital, who sound like they are set to explore new genres, and fresh fields for their reflective powers.