Artist: Boy Harsher
Title: Get Mean
Genre: EBM / Darkwave / Coldwave / Drone / Electronic
Release Date: 18th September 2026
Label: Boy Harsher under license to Atlantic Recording Corp
Album Review
Its here! BOY HARSHER’s 6th long player is out! The other five albums over the past 12 years were recorded whilst Jae Mathews and August Muller were a romantic couple. The “romantic” bit has been erased and the “professional” is the only descriptor that remains. There’s been a lot of water flowing under the bridge since their performance art project TEEN DREAMZ, this affair filled with allusions to the parting and its aftermath.
The artists themselves have said that the album is about love, loss and survival and a “moving forward into renewal”. What does one do if one does not move forward? You die as you suffocate in your own misery. I reviewed some teasers way back in August, ‘Jeans’ and ‘Get Mean’, lets dive in and see what this is like, eh?
The album starts with the track ‘Ronny’. It’s a husky and vulnerable but sensual four-minute canter. Why am I thinking of Ronny Kray? ‘Jeans’ as stated above I wrote about last month. Again, I say that it’s light in tone, it has a tippy toe vibe with arm swings. Ha! The wax and wane lyrics seem wryly humorous and mocking. It’s about the relationship breakdown, the shock, of what’s next and the contemplation of giving up, all the time wasted on commitment to do something simple like selling jeans. Ha! Can you sense the anger and sadness?
‘Break Me’ stutters and judders, the sensual vocal weaving through the juddery motion. I start dancing in a juddery manner stamping my foot fast whilst veering right and left. Its humorously serious ecstasy. The bass is a pillar of solidity of which silvery electronic sounds manoeuvre around. ‘Tough Luck’ is cold and icy. “Do you feel regret?” - “I wanna say I’m ok when you don’t call.” Jae is not. But now she knows. She didn’t take that very well, did she?
‘Faulty’ is Synth Pop from back in time. The lyric asks “are we better off alone and will I come into my own. Will this break up hit me, like a ton of bricks?” All wrapped in floaty and aerated synths as if part of the psyche does not want to deal with the event of break up and it’s affects. The lyric in ‘Coming Home’ seems like it’s coming from under a duvet, its less perceptible to my ear than some of the other tracks but a NEW ORDER vibe sits over the top that draws my attention more than the lyric. Oh, “What do you mean it’s not my fault stands out…” Up next is the groin and groovy minimalism of ‘Hard Beat’ It’s darkly danceable and breathy along with a soft punch. “Let’s make it real” the lyric opines. What, let the break up real?
‘Ice Pick’ sounds like a traditional guitar-based track with warm chorused bass and guitar twinkles, The track reminds me of LUSH or COLD COLOURS if I didn’t know who I was listening to but that husky vocal is a giveaway. Again, the vocal is not a decipherable as at the beginning of the album. I’m having to work harder to pull out the words. Apart from “walk away”.
‘Ivy’s Spiral’ drones through in a quick motion. It’s over in 43 seconds and the voice talks about spiralling, going on long walks and listening to scary stories before stopping caring, thinking of someone’s name and doing somersaults. It’s a glimpse into distraction and distance. But it’s like the short nature of the track indicates the short nature of the said distractions and distance before the reality of hurt sets in again...
‘Pray 4 Me’ is a gloopy introspective, sensual tome that conjures images in me of a miserable pole dancer rubbing her groin on cold metal and pursing her lips whilst telling me how crap life is after betrayal. I sit, I listen and I smirk to myself. Up next is the last but one track ‘Falling’. The lyric “Even in your head I believed you when you said we were everything” sums up to me that the protagonist’s relationship was tight, strong and unbreakable but then it wasn’t. It changed, something changed and for one side of the duo shock and disbelief set in. The deliver feels slightly detached, the track brought together with punchy synth bass and emphatic meandering splatters.
Finally the album comes to an end with ‘Bleed’, a slow plod of a track, cold with eyes diverted to the ground. The sound is of a barren space waiting for fertilisation. “I don’t wanna see what it’s like to be alone again. I don’t wanna need someone on the phone, my only friend”. Ok, many of us have been in this position but a bout of resilience would be good, wouldn’t it? Not needing a phone friend to buffer your discomfort or a relationship to separate from fortitude?
I like the album; it took me longer to get into it than previous efforts. But, it’s danceable though. And on a few tracks, I rewound numerous times to try and get the lyrics because to my ears they were smudged behind in the mix. But I get the tone, it’s angry, confused, there’s shock, disbelief, disorientation and a smattering of seeds of acceptance that haven’t really sprouted yet.
And obviously it’s territory that Jae Mathews and August Muller have not been in for a while, being single. And being in a band with the person you broke up with. I’d like to have been in the studio when this was being recorded so I could witness the vibes and the auras.
Tracklist
01. Ronny
02. Jeans
03. Break me
04. Tough Luck (When You Don’t Call)
05. Faulty
06. Coming Home
07. Hard Beat
08. Ice Pick (Walk Away)
09. Ivy’s Spiral
10. Pray 4 Me
11. Falling
12. Bleed
Line-up
Jae Mathews - Vocals and Lyrics
August Muller - Producer, Synths, Sequencers and Drum Machines
Website
https://boyharsher.com/
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 8
Sound: 7.5
Total: 8 / 10
