ALBUM REVIEW – GANS – ”GOOD FOR THE SOUL“
- HARRY K
- 6 days ago
- 2 min read
WORDS HARRY K
Gans - Good For The Soul
Release Date: 19th September 2025
Debut albums don’t usually hit this hard. GANS — the Black Country duo of Euan Woodman and Tom Rhodes — arrive with GOOD FOR THE SOUL, a record that thrives on contradiction: punishing yet playful, grounded yet sky-gazing. Signed to Peter Doherty’s Strap Originals and produced by Ross Orton (Arctic Monkeys, Amyl & The Sniffers), it’s a debut that refuses to play it safe.
Written and recorded in a Welsh cottage, the album is steeped in the band’s working-class upbringing and shaped by a love of art, literature and poetry. That mix of grit and imagination runs through everything here. One moment you’re crushed by dense, psych-tinged noise; the next, you’re lifted by something tender and unexpectedly soulful.
The highlights prove just how wide their palette stretches. In Time barrels forward like a runaway train, all churn and catharsis. Nightwalking pulls back the tempo but piles on the tension, its brass flourishes adding a sinister beauty. This Product channels post-punk paranoia into something jagged and danceable, while Everything In Extremes closes in widescreen, a bruised but cinematic comedown.
Lyrically, GANS don’t duck the heavy stuff. Body image, self-destruction, and acceptance run throughout, delivered with honesty rather than empty sloganeering. These aren’t anthems in the traditional sense, but they’re no less gripping — the kind of songs that burrow under your skin rather than sit neatly on a playlist.
GOOD FOR THE SOUL is a debut that feels lived-in and urgent, messy in all the right ways. GANS don’t sound like a band figuring things out — they sound like a band already kicking down doors.
For a first chapter, it’s a hell of a statement.
Rating: ★★★★☆ 4 Stars
TRACK LISTING
A FOOL
IN TIME
IT'S JUST LIFE
NIGHTWALKING
FAR AND WIDE
EVERYTHING IN EXTREME
I THINK I LIKE YOU
THE KINGS HEAD
THIS PRODUCT
OH GEORGE
WELL DONE
Oh George (Censored)(Vocal Up)
FOLLOW GANS
Comments