“Panic Shack” will be released on Brace Yourself Records on July 18, 2025. The news comes joined by the album’s lead single and opening track ‘Girl Band Starter Pack’ together with a music video directed by Ren Faulkner.
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Today, Cardiff’s Panic Shack announce their long-awaited debut album, Panic Shack, ahead of a July 18th release on Brace Yourself Records.
The news comes joined by the album’s lead single and opening track ‘Girl Band Starter Pack‘, a roof-raising start to proceedings that’s fizzing with the anticipation of walking into a club at the start of a night out. It opens with the rising sound of chatter, glass clinking and laughter, most of which was recorded in the beer garden at an Amyl & the Sniffers gig, in the process sounding like the party-punk equivalent to the intro of Spice Girls’ ‘Wannabe’.
From there, the bouncy bass line and blistering guitars kick in and the band pull you into their world the way a friend would grab your hand and drag you onto the dancefloor. “Four iced lattes / Sit outside / Smoke a rolly / Sun is shining / People watching / Things are moving / Got us talking…” Sarah Harvey chants, the pace ramping up like a heartbeat beginning to race. It’s the perfect encapsulation of the good-time philosophy at the core of Panic Shack since day dot.
“‘Girl Band Starter Pack’ was the title of our inspiration playlist on Spotify when we first started the band,”say Panic Shack. “It’s had many deaths and rebirths but has been with us since the start, so it’s quite special to us. Not only because we’ve watched it morph into a certified banger (it was once named ‘Banger Potential’) but because it personifies our friendship and the electricity we feel when we’re together, whether that’s creating, playing or simply just grabbing a coffee … which as the song foretells, usually leads to a voddy.”
Its accompanying video, meanwhile, sees the band enlist trouble-starting drag queens Jolene Dover, Lasagne Sheets, CiCi and Bopa Rhys to portray the band for a night on the Cardiff tiles. “We wanted a music video that really heightened the vibe of the song, and thought who else could play us better than a bunch of sassy, sexy, stunnin Welsh drag queens?!,” the band explain. “All hail, Jolene Dover, Bopa Rhys, CiCi and Lasagne Sheets. They played us better than we play ourselves and have inspired us to dial our energy up to 11. We let the Queens loose on the streets of Cardiff, went to all of our usual haunts around the city and laughed until our stomachs hurt all day.”
Panic Shack teased their debut album’s arrival earlier this year with new single ‘Gok Wan‘, an incendiary rebuke of toxic tabloid culture in the 00s and its effects on body image in young women. The single was premiered by Huw Stephens on BBC 6 Music where it also won the 6 Music Roundtable and reached B-list rotation at the station. It went down to a rapturous reception for the band’s return at press with support from the likes of NME, Kerrang, DIY, The Line of Best Fit, Dork, 1883 Magazine, Wonderland Magazine and many more. It was joined by a stark, unadulterated video that perfectly plays on the societal pressures for women to work hard to adhere to a certain type of male gaze-coded body image, directed by Ren Faulkner with choreography by Lauren Fretwell.
Panic Shack
Self Titled
TRACKLISTING
01. Girl Band Starter Pack
02. Gok Wan
03. Lazy
04. Tit School
05. We Need To Talk About Dennis
06. Do Something
07. Personal Best
08. Pockets
09. Unhinged
10. SMELLARAT
11. Thelma & Louise
Panic Shack © Megan Winstone
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Julien Fernandez — Fiverosespress
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