ALBUM REVIEW: Hak Baker – World’s End FM

Hak Attack Records/AWAL

Released: 09.06.23

There’s a bountiful melange of delights to get stuck into on Hak Baker‘s full-hearted debut LP. Structured as a spirited Doomsday radiocast that’s equal parts raucous and restrained, World’s End FM is at once unapologetically political, winningly candid and richly resonant. Deftly straddling the line between tempered defiance and earnest vulnerability, the East London troubadour displays an ineffable knack for relatability, with lyrics that restlessly flit from cheeky bants to heartbreak, from rage to reluctant acceptance, and melancholy to unabashed joy.

Cockney-twanged freewheeler Doolally comes triple-dipped in an impish satiricality that effortlessly recalls The Streets circa ‘02. Elsewhere, Bricks In The Wall’s jaunty inflections belie a doleful gospel of impending societal strife. Who’d’ve thought the apocalypse would sound so good?