Album Review: ‘Fix Yourself, Not The World’ by The Wombats

Lily Holbrook

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Chaotic, head-banging, fast-paced and captivatingly reckless. Fix Yourself, Not The World is a record of raw emotion. Finally landing themselves their first ever number one album in a career spanning almost 20 years, this latest offering from The Wombats represents everything about our flipped upside-down world during the wild Covid era.

Documenting the universal highs and all-too-real lows of life in a pandemic, here’s my track-by-track analysis of The Wombats’ fifth studio offering.

“Flip Me Upside Down’ + ‘This Car Drives All by Itself”

Pairing raucous energy with uplifting calm, the record’s first two tracks are the perfect juxtaposition. While “Flip Me Upside Down” sounds every bit as frantic and unrelenting as the title suggests. The wistful air of “This Car Drives All by Itself” shows us how leaning into the utter chaos of the last two years can teach us to move forward.

“If You Ever Leave, I’m Coming with You”

Highlighted most notably via their play on “Love Will Tear Us Apart” in one of their best and most well-loved classics, “Let’s Dance To Joy Division” (2007), clever lyrics have always stood at the very core of The Wombats’ identity. This record is no exception. Released as the album’s second single, “If You Ever Leave, I’m Coming with You” is an anthem infused with desperation and fear, and in an era of sacrifices where many of us have suffered extraordinary loss, frontman Murphy echoes the sentiment that he’s not ready to let anything go again.

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“Ready For the High”

Filled with a sense of understated euphoria, “Ready For the High” is one of the album’s highlights, lyrically and sonically. Understanding our shared craving to feel moments of pure joy again, the song is a nod to the times spent painfully apart; “I should be pulling you close to me.” Opening each chorus with the lines: “I’m ready for the high life, a kiss without the fistfight.” The song does everything to emphasise the simple joy of being together.

“Method to the Madness”

If you were to rewind three and a half years to August 2018, you’d find me standing in a field at a sunny Leeds Festival. The Wombats were one of the bands I was most excited to see and one memorable moment came when the trio shared the underrated and unexpected art of elevator music with the audience. To me, that’s exactly what the opening bars of “Method to the Madness” feel like. Slowing everything right down, the track seeks to extract some kind of sense from the madness we’ve all experienced. Then, as the song builds to its thrashing Foals-like crescendo, the realisation comes that no one has a clue and all control is lost: “Fuck our options, fuck the life plan”.

 

“People Don’t Change People, Time Does”

Alluding to the strange and somewhat guilt-ridden experience of time spent in and out of “this pleasant displeasure,” aka lockdown. “People Don’t Change People, Time Does” explores themes of time and transience. Accepting that unfavourable situations force us into action faster than any other incentive, “The Universe has got plans” epitomises the feeling that life’s only certainty is the passage of time.

“Everything I Love is Going to Die”

Defeatist, nihilistic, realistic. “Everything I Love is Going to Die” feels like a stark realisation that our time on earth is precious and limited. With lines like “locked in a quarantine” and “swapped my happiness for cheques”, the track offers a perspective on the capitalist mechanisms that drive us forward. But everything we love (and hate), including the money we work for our entire lives, will eventually end.

“Work Is Easy, Life Is Hard”

“Work Is Easy, Life Is Hard” confronts the idea that emotional paralysis is incited by our inability to speak the truth. The disturbing parallels between the lyrics, “Why don’t you chop my tongue out / And then put my insides inside a jar,” and the band’s earlier “Cheetah Tongue” (Beautiful People Will Ruin Your Life, 2018), “I cut off my head and my cheetah tongue, I can’t think straight, and my mouth is numb” emphasises an unfinished feeling for the three-piece that stretches across their discography.

“Wildfire”

Possibly my favourite track on the album.”Wildfire” is a song full of toe-tapping and heavy drumbeats. Playing metaphorically on the threat of wildfire to communicate the severity of climate degradation, the song’s lyrical substance allows its bassy hooks to resonate even more. Emotive, soaring, and terrifying. The track’s unsettling sonic elements are perhaps not surprising for a band who have built their reputation on tragedy (see “Greek Tragedy” (2015) and Murph’s 2020 debut solo project, Love Fame Tragedy).

“Don’t Poke the Bear”

Packed with references to drugs, “Don’t Poke the Bear” is a pure rock song. But viewing the bear as a reference to nature, the song serves another purpose – a warning. “Don’t poke the bear in the zoo”, or “Don’t unleash the power of nature, because, one day, it will come for you.”

“Worry”

Murph’s confessionals on the penultimate track, “Worry” document a world riddled with anxiety in a revealing stream of consciousness. “I’m pretty much worried about everything really” candidly encapsulates what many of us are feeling. The contrast between the playful tone of the chorus and its direct lyricism, “It’s not paranoia if it’s really there”, highlights the denial of living in a time where our nightmares are becoming a reality.

“Fix Yourself, Not the World”

Reclaiming the control after a frenzied set of tracks that leave you feeling like you’ve been eaten up and spat out the other side, the record’s final message is reflective. “Fix Yourself, Not the World” is a reminder that, regardless of external circumstances, we must always come back to ourselves: “I don’t want to lose myself / In someone else’s game”. There’s immense pressure to take on responsibility and fix every problem with our planet. But if there’s one message worth remembering, it’s to always fix yourself first.

Stream Fix Yourself, Not the World on Spotify here.

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Featured image courtesy of Ditze on Pixabay. The image has been cropped for style. Image license found here.