The Swansea indie unit share their Tom Rees (Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard) produced new single.

Welsh five-piece Taxi Rank gifted us some sensational singles in 2021. Golden Days was a 2000s indie-esque gem that we absolutely loved and thought would be difficult to follow up from, and then we heard A Piece Of You — and, wow, were we wrong. Animal is the band’s first release of 2022, and definitely not the last.

Coming in slightly heavier sounding than some of the band’s previous singles, Animal is a percussion-soaked track that gives the single a richer post-punk feel, with excellent accompanying guitar work and riffs that are reminiscent of a Fontaines D.C. sound.  

Sometimes some ego-filled artists need to give some over the top epic poem about what a song means to them. That is not Taxi Rank. “Honestly, I don’t know what the track is about at all,” guitarist Matt Kivi had to say about the meaning of Animal. And, you know what? You have to respect that don’t you – I certainly do. On the contrary, the lead singer (and writer of Animal) Lukas Kelly says it’s about “a good fucking gig and all the jazz that comes with it.”

It’s going to be really exciting to see what Taxi Rank does in the future and how their sound continues to develop. Already gaining the notice of multiple stations including BBC Radio Wales, I fully expect Taxi Rank to be a prominent group in the Welsh scene in no time. Hopefully this single is part of something bigger to come — perhaps a debut EP? We can only keep our fingers crossed.