The Clinch — Time's Up (Sunny Bastards Records)

Melbourne street punk outfit The Clinch have been building toward this one for a while. Time's Up is their third full-length, following 2018's Our Path Is One and 2020's Basecamp, and it's the sound of a band that's spent years translating Melbourne stages directly into songwriting rather than performing an idea of what street punk is supposed to sound like. What's always set The Clinch apart from a lot of the Oi! revival pack is that they've never leaned on irony or pastiche to get there — the gang vocals and terrace-chant choruses read as sincere, not winking, which is a harder thing to pull off than it sounds. This record earns that reputation track by track.

Opener "One Generation from Despair" is a wild statement of intent, throwing every one of the band's high-level skills at you at once — cutting riffs, gang vocals, and the kind of dynamic shifts that kick the door down before you've had a chance to brace for it. It's as much modern street punk as it is a love letter to obvious forebears like The Business and Cock Sparrer, and it makes clear early that this isn't a record interested in easing you in.

"The Guard" follows and the band jump up at least two levels in quality right out of the gate — everything here is more forceful, more energetic, a better-constructed and more persuasive song than the opener even managed. The vocals have become more assertive and spirited, and the drums and guitar have a punchier, feistier attack that carries straight through into "Coming to Collect," a stern, purposeful track built on some of the best guitar work on the whole record. The tension between rhythm and lead guitar here is genuinely magic, matched by a muscular, ape-like drum and bass tone that doesn't so much carry the songs as pulverise them into shape.

"Lies" is the record's one real change of pace, leaning into a melodic hardcore vibe while still nailing the anthemic quality this band seems to reach for without effort. It's got that locomotive momentum — the kind of track built for rollicking along or belting out Oi! karaoke at 2am — and it works because it splits the difference between modern punk urgency and stunning throwbacks to Blitz and Angelic Upstarts.

Then there's "Melbourne," the goddamn anthem this record will be remembered for. The gang vocals carry it, but the real highlight lands around the two-minute mark, where a lower, quieter verse builds into a crescendo that hasn't hit this hard since Sham 69's "If the Kids Are United." It's the kind of moment a room full of strangers turns into a choir.

Picking favourites across the rest of the record is genuinely difficult, because nothing here is filler. "Journeyman" earns its stripes on hammering drums and riffs that are downright addictive. "Fed" doesn't try to be a departure — it leans hard into hardcore and works from the very first listen, and it's here that vocalist Steve puts in the performance of the record. If the rest of the band has pushed themselves on Time's Up, Steve's delivery on "Fed" is the steel-capped boot to the face after everything else has already broken your bones — bouncing between a gravelly, visceral attack and phrasing that's always urgent, with a melodic edge that's catchy as hell without ever losing its bite. He, like the rest of the band, refuses to let this be some polished Oi!/street punk tribute act.

Heading into the record's back half, "Crown Electric" showcases more of that wild guitar work, rolling down the highway with the attitude of an early Dropkick Murphys or Street Dogs cut, its tempo and vocal shifts landing as another genuine gem rather than a victory lap. Closer "Chosen Life" tells the story of the misfits who've made this music their foundation, dripping in the kind of authentic, unforced spirit that's become this band's calling card — if a song this good can't bring people together and show what the working class is capable of, nothing will.

And if you've already heard the record, you've noticed I've left one out — on purpose. "Stray Dogs" gets the honour of best track on the album, at least today. It's an angular, pure, fist-pumping door-kicker that distils everything praised above into three and a bit minutes of gritty, unfiltered skill. It's the record's clearest thesis statement.

Time's Up is full-throated, unpretentious, and built for a room full of people who already know every word by the second chorus — and after a record this strong, that room is only going to get bigger.

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Buy their records and merch and catch them on their European tour in October.