Album Review: THE SICK MAN OF EUROPE - 'THE SICK MAN OF EUROPE'
The Sick Man of Europe is one of the freshest voices to emerge from London’s underground music scene with a distinctive Joy Division-stylised techno vibe that offers up one of the best debut albums of the decade.
80s art rock is back. The Sick Man of Europe’s self-titled debut album is due Friday June 20th, 2025, and the imagery right through to the music feels appropriately underground and authentic – they first cropped up on my radar at a free gig at the Shacklewell Arms earlier in the year and are at tastemaker festival Left of gthe Dial towards the end of 2025 in the Netherlands. Think Joy Division with a question that asks, “where does the machine end and humanity begin?” The themes that run through the self-titled album are full of archaic tendencies that feel obsolete in nature; questioning the relevancy in the technical; artificial age. The pressure of fitting in and humanity’s need to connect and get everything right first time is felt from the first track; Obsolete, a Kraut-fuelled one-man band in full show from the off. “There’s nothing more human than the fear of the inevitable, and we’re reminded of it everywhere we look, as the relentless pace of progress takes over, everything we’ve ever made is retired so quickly in the name of endless growth. At what point do we become obsolete?” – the self-abbreviated TSMOE explains of the first single from his album. It’s heart-racing and maximises the repetitive drum patterns that run through the album.
Second track and going strong is Transactional. The themes of depersonalisation in the digital age are evident and it matches the desire to connect with that of connection becoming transactional and alienated. The album is a study on the tension between human identity, tech advancement and the meaning in the modern world – and that follows through giving TSMOE a sense of identity and purpose from the off. “I’m here, I’m alive, it’s time,” runs through the chorus of Transactional, as if the lead must remind himself that he’s here and still exists when everyone is always online. It’s a powerful track – think The Null Club and Gilla Band for modern comparisons, active in the London music scene with Doom Club and Saint Izaure supporting their album launch tour at the Sebright Arms later in the year.
The longest track on the album coming in at almost ten (ten!) minutes is Sanguine. It earns its length – pulsating energy throughout keeps it sustained. The artist’s album feels like a mission statement in his own right – the term itself having been first being coined by Tsar Nicholas I to describe the Ottoman Empire in 1833, since then repopularised and weaponised as means as describing Greece, the UK and Germany – depending on where you grew up; what generation – it means something different. It’s a timely title for an album that maps out the re-drawing of cold war battlefields and the rising of geopolitical tensions – the perfect hallmark for our times.
Profane Not Profound is a statement piece; catchy and a pace-changer after Sanguine. “We eat we fight we shit, the modern world makes me sick, let’s destroy it,” is a statement and a half – catchy, repetitive and equally damning as a state of a nation commentary. The whole album feels like that – a state of the nation commentary in every sense of the word. It lives up to the billing across its next tracks – an eight-track album that commands your attention and keeps you there for all of its run. Addictive and compulsive – you won’t want to miss this. Genuine album of the year contender if you adjust to its synth wavelength and it’s hard not to. Appropriately ending with I’m Alive – this self-titled masterpiece ends on a high note that must be experienced live.
Words by Miles Milton-Jefferies
