3The key to The Meffs’ second album can be found in “Law”. Three minutes of a recording contains this line: “If a law is unjust, a man is not only right to disobey it, but he is obliged to do so.”
When Lily Hopkins sings those words – or sneers them, more accurately – she is drawing battle lines. Punk rock has to mean something. It has to stand for something.
From the start of opener “Dreamin’”, which is a minute and three seconds of filth and fury, Business makes its intentions clear. Hopkins and drummer Lewis Copsey have always proved that two-piece bands possess a rawness that larger groups often struggle to capture. There is nowhere to hide, nothing to soften the edges and no spare instrument to dilute the impact.
“What A Nightmare” deals with the state of the world – or, more particularly, the UK – which, according to its lyrics, was built on greed, blood and hypocrisy. It is difficult to find a more accurate description of the British Empire, or of the black-shirted, balaclava-wearing fascist scum who were in Dover last week pretending they were defending something.
The circle continues with “Where Did It All Go Wrong?”, before the title track takes the music industry apart. It talks about not fitting into neat boxes and almost raps: “We don’t play like that, we don’t think like that.” It is hard not to hear it as the loud, guitar-based cousin of something Bob Vylan might do.
“Fight” lasts only 32 seconds and works as an aggressive palate cleanser before “Disorder (Wake Up)” sounds like a demand. “Who’s your enemy?” Hopkins asks, before insisting that you pick a side. Just make certain it is the right side of history. Don’t pick the side of fascism, racism or the filth that gathered at the Reform UK conference in Birmingham last week.
“Love To Lose” sounds as though losing has become the default position of the working class in 2026, while “So Modern (Keep Up)” is a brilliant put-down of the modern obsession with maintaining the correct appearance. “I’ve got a thousand mates,” Hopkins sings. “I hate most of them, they think I’m great.” It is a devastating dismissal of Instagram culture.
The Donots appear on “God Complex”, but underneath the extra weight is a more understated question: who are you when nobody is watching?
“Like Gravity”, the longest song here, gives The Meffs space to explore punk’s outer reaches before their cover of The Prodigy’s “Breathe” takes the original even further down the punk route – a journey it nearly completed when Liam Howlett and the boys recorded it. The Meffs have been playing it live for a while, and anyone who has seen them will know exactly how well it suits them.
Business is quite a statement. It is a line in the sand: this far and no further. It is a throwback to when punk was supposed to stand for something, stir the rubble and confront the world around it.
Too often these days, perhaps it doesn’t. No one told The Meffs.
In this case, that’s their business – and Business is very, very good.
Rating: 9/10
