Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes - 'Man of the Hour'
It’s been a tumultuous time for rock legend Frank Carter. The past year has seen the punk paragon, — ever-accompanied by his beloved Rattlesnakes, in the form of Dean Richardson, Gareth Grover and Tom ‘Tank’ Barclay — go through a set of highs and lows; from playing a set of sweat-soaked shows at Camden’s The Underworld last December, and headlining Cheltenham's fan-favourite festival 2000trees back in July, to the sad closure of his tattoo shop, Rose Of Mercy, in Hoxton. But, spawned from those emotionally chimeric months, comes some of Frank Carter& The Rattlesnakes’ most considered work to date. And first up? ‘Man of the Hour’.
With a string of sellout shows and tours around the world, three - soon to be four? - top ten UK albums under their belt, and a monumentally praised live presence, it would be easy for Frank and co. to sit on their laurels. They’ve headlined Download, sold out Alexandra Palace… they’ve done pretty damn well, all things considered. For the fearsome foursome to release some of their most surprising, unexpected, and evolved work to date, then, is something wondrous.
But that’s what ‘Man of the Hour’ is.
The lead single and second track of 2024’s ‘Dark Rainbow’ — what a name, eh? — ‘Man of the Hour’, fronted by a single cover seeming to show a devil lacerated by eleven swords, is a piano-featuring slow burner that shows off the band’s softer side, gentle drumbeats and synth chimes giving way to a crooning Frank, disillusioned with stardom and struggling with introspection and the conflicts it brings, warring with who he is, and who he could be, the good and the bad. “Am I lost again?” he asks, somewhere between bitter and tongue-in-cheek, over the deceptively upbeat keyboard instrumentals, before seeming to do the lyrical equivalent of a rueful chuckle at his own vulnerability: “how could I forget you only want the rock star, porn star, man of the hour?”
The whole track gives off the image of a revered celebrity floating listlessly in a pool, drink in hand, trying to reconcile expectations with reality. It’s painfully easy to get sucked in and drift away in the almost lethargically acerbic chorus, but a concerted effort to stay focussed reveals a beautifully crafted track that, along with the oozing earworm of ‘Honey’, debuted at 2000trees, promises a stunning new chapter to the bands’ serpentine legacy.
Words by James O’Sullivan
