Words by: Michael Bradley
Available May 30, 2025
ATO Records
It’s always a gamble to walk the tightrope of career suicide; one bad judgment and it’s over. Amassing a steady fan base with a formula that clearly works is the path towards success, and changing the recipe will always alienate a portion of followers, no matter how well you do moving forward.
However, sometimes this risky investment pays off: the poster boy for this is of course Bob Dylan – shocking the world by ‘going electric‘, dropping the acoustic guitar to plug in and ‘play it fucking loud!‘. Crowds everywhere booed him, yet retrospect shows us he was making his most revered records, solidifying his place as one of the most influential artists of the 20th century.
CIVIC are now taking this leap of faith with their new album, Chrome Dipped. It leaves behind their punk status for which they are known and loved, and adopts an alternative, suave sound. Immediately, the most noticeable difference is the voice of singer Jim McCullogh. As opposed to his regular harsh, throaty vocal-frying, his delivery here is softer, breathier, and melodic. Other regular members, guitarist Lewis Hodgson and bassist Roland Hlavka, are still kicking out the jams with their signature crunchy tones and rolling rhythms, while adding to the changed environment is new drummer Eli Sthapit, who is obviously apt for the job.
Produced by Kirin J. Callinan, the sound is cleaner than previous works but isn’t polished so delicately that it lacks authenticity and the purposeful imperfections which make hard-edged rock what it is. It’s a quantum leap from ‘70s punk to ‘90s grunge, but CIVIC are making it work.
Kicking off with The Fool, the boys clearly still run with high energy. Wasting no time at less than three minutes, it’s reminiscent of 80s Aussie rock – picture Paul Kelly on speed. The near-acapella moments are lacklustre, demonstrating that McCullogh’s new voice still needs some tweaking, as it’s still suited to classic punk. Choosing this as the final teaser before the album drops is an interesting but solid decision.
The album’s first single, the eponymous Chrome Dipped, has surprised fans, but it has not largely divided them; most of the feedback has been positive, and listening to this title track proves why. If this were the first Civic song you’d ever heard, you may assume they are in fact a bona fide 90s group. It fits right in line with The Offspring, Alice in Chains and The Smashing Pumpkins. This track doesn’t beat around the bush – it’s very in your face with an infectious flow to get the body moving. The lyrics are detailed well enough to be relatable, while lacking the over-explanation to make you walk away thinking. By the end of it’s 3 and a half minutes, you’re left wanting more.
Gulls Way is slower, dramatic, and emotive as the lyrics deal with death, grief, and acceptance. McCullough, who lost his mother during the writing of the album, expresses the feeling of being struck frozen with the brutal reality of the inevitable, how the fear of permanent loss can transform you into a child desperately grasping at air for help. Sometimes, when artists feel a strong emotional conviction to express themselves – a cathartic and highly personal experience – it can come off as sappy and make the listener feel uncomfortable. This is not the case with Gull’s Way. It’s a carefully structured and well-thought-out piece. The song ends with the words ‘I wish you the best, oh, my love‘ and the spluttering of feedback. A beautiful tribute.
The Hogg reminds us that we’re still listening to a Civic album, like a screaming alarm clock commanding that the headbanging must commence. Hodgson’s guitar is drenched with distortion, reeling in feedback and leading the way. The tone is representative of 90s punk, grunge, and garage – that nasally, ear-munching, blaring that is quintessential of so many now classic tracks of said genres. It’s no surprise that it’s currently CIVIC’s most popular song on streaming services.
Things change with Starting All the Dogs Off. The drum beat is a mixture of jazz, hip-hop and prog, which is refreshing to hear in 2025. The whole structure is odd, but in the best of ways. It’s like McCullogh is freestyling poetically over a loosely organised jam session. There are even some moments of psychedelia and space-rock. It’s fascinating and liberating, and zigzags between form and lack thereof. I feel like the Dead Kennedy’s’ Jello Biafra would approve of this.
In case anyone got spooked, Trick Pony brings straight-forward CIVIC back. This could be mistaken as an out take from any of their previous collections of music. The vocals may still be smoother, but the attitude is here and evident in the phrasing of each word. Towards the end, the rhythm dramatically changes gears: fuzzed-up bass and a stomping drum beat act as the caretakers, ensuring the song keeps moving along, while a sequence of improvised, rule-lacking sci-fi guitar wails and moans enough to scare you sober. Think early Moog synthesizer meets Hendrix in the mood for experimenting.
Amissus is a hit or miss track. The listener would either forget about it immediately or realise how fast it flies by and develop the urge to listen again in case anything was missed. Some steel string acoustic expands its potential, and it follows this with more examples of experimentation; layered vocals, alternating time signatures, the background noise of rattling chains. ‘In this body, I am alive‘ is the mantra and the last words to sound before being extinguished by a humming fade-out.
There has clearly been some diplomatic choosing of the order of the track listing. Like a rollercoaster, just as you’re coming down, the boys grab you by the collar and throw you back in the thick of the mosh. Poison deceives by starting off with slow arpeggios, sounding like a cross between classical and medieval. Then, from the left speaker sneaks in an overdubbed second guitar and sets a new pace, drowning out the first. A drum roll slides up in volume, peaking at the open pearly gates of punk hell; again, the hard-hitting, chaotic, energy-sodden sound of CIVIC which we all know and love is loud and clear. ‘Looking for the answer‘, repeats McCollough, before a short but sweet, ripping guitar solo takes the song to a new height. This album noticeably lacks solos, but these 10 seconds are enough of a bone thrown our way to keep up our hopes of hearing more in the future.
Fragrant Rice introduces some new effects on the vocals, and the singing is very Ian Curtis cross Iggy Pop’s The Passenger. A virtually unintelligible and sterile audio of what sounds like a news report – in the style of the robot voice in King Gizzard’s Han-Tyumi – takes over the air waves halfway through, acting as a bridge to another little guitar solo. The band is tight on this track, coming in and going out with precision.
A junkie’s lullaby was not what I was expecting to hear on this album, but Kingdom Come delivered the goods. Picture Kurt Cobain and John Frusciante, biceps still strapped, out-of-tune guitars in hand, and hitting record on a cheap tape deck before singing and playing what they likely thought in that moment was one of the best songs they’d ever made. What could be more punk than that? I can’t explain why, but I just like it. It’s one of those songs that in theory, should not work, but does. I can see this track becoming an underground favourite.
Up until this point, a few different genres have been on display, but the overarching king is hard-rock. The last track, Swing of the Noose, is in the vein of classic punk CIVIC and thrown in just for good measure. Scraping over the two-minute mark, it closes the record on a high. Not a lot can be said about it; more can be felt in its presence.
CIVIC – Chrome Dipped Australian Tour
with special guests, Coldwave
Thu 4 Sept – Gold Coast, Mo’s Desert Clubhouse
Fri 5 Sept- Brisbane, The Brightside
Sat 6 Sept– Sydney, Oxford Art Factory
Fri 12 Sept- Adelaide, Ed Castle
Sat 13 Sept- Melbourne, The Croxton
