Despite such a huge surge in Irish music as of late, Basht. have managed to stand out in such a populated crowd as a mainstay in Irish expression. Maybe it’s the sense of frustration running underneath nearly every track, or the way their music manages to sound both completely chaotic yet strangely sombre and calculated at the same time. Over the past 4 years since their debut single, the Dublin four-piece have built themselves a reputation for making music that is deeply rooted in personal and global turmoil, and Poor Advice is like an incredible boiling point for those themes.
In many ways, this debut album almost feels like an argument. An argument with authority, the church as well as deeper personal struggles, like they’re combatting the various voices that tell you how you’re supposed to live your life. But Basht. have never been a band to deliver their ideas straightforward or politely. Across ten tracks, Poor Advice turns those frustrations into something loud, jagged and occasionally pensive and even unsettling, while still finding plenty of room for the hooks and melodies that have made the band so exciting in the first place.
The opening track of the album, Dive, really showcases the capabilities of Basht.’s range. Despite the explosive nature of a lot of their tracks, Dive is a brooding slow burn. Jack Leavey’s vocals are haunting as they grow to be accompanied by a steady and heavy drum beat and a more energetic climax. This as an opener really shows how Basht. are able to incorporate anticipation to their songs without feeling boring and redundant. The track is very Radiohead-esque, as not only is it explosive and loose but it also feels very electronic and calculated, certainly a strength of this opening song and huge compliment to them as a relatively new group.
While it certainly is not a refrain from a musical standpoint, Keira Knightly as the third track feels like a moment of personal focus from an album that so amazingly explores huge themes. The track focuses on the deterioration of a relationship, one that was once exciting and full, but slowly crumbled into being draining and distant. The use of Keira Knightly as the title is a really excellent reference to the cue-card scene in Love Actually, but rather than being a symbol of love, Basht. use it as a sign of desperately clinging onto hope of something you know you will never have. It really is a fantastic showcase of not only their songwriting abilities, but also the range of which they can use it.
Basht.’s ability to shift between personal and universal struggles is what makes Poor Advice such an interesting listen. Basht. never allow the album to become entirely detached from the people living underneath those systems and be overtaken by all their frustration aimed towards institutions and the wider world. There’s a constant feeling of anxiety running through the record, whether that comes from a collapsing relationship, questioning authority or simply trying to find your own place amongst it all. What makes this project particularly effective is that the band never seem to force these ideas into the music. Instead, they let the instrumentation do much of the talking, with quieter, more restrained delivery often carrying just as much weight as the album’s loudest explosions.
That being said, when Basht. do decide to let things explode, they really do explode. There’s a rawness to the heavier moments of Poor Advice that prevents the album from feeling overly polished, with guitars that feel almost like they’re fighting against the vocals rather than simply accompanying them. Their instrumentals are often chaotic, yet there’s always a purpose behind that chaos. The result is an album that can be incredibly bleak one minute before suddenly bursting into something almost euphoric the next.
Track number eight, Moth, is a beautiful example of this, and perfectly encapsulates Basht.’s ability to blend refrains with explosive yet melancholic moments. This song is so fuelled with paranoia and gloom yet manages to feel so powerful in its louder moments. Lyrics such as “I don’t care if its true, I just want you to mean it when you say it is” and “Nothing scares me like you” really stand out here as a desperate plea to those in higher power who wrongfully have control over society, and they gracefully embody the themes of challenging authority. Moth certainly stands out as one of the best tracks on the album.
The metaphoric and majestic feel of Moth is switched out quickly for the more direct track nine, Kids Vs Guns. With such large problems currently deeply impacting the world, such as the conflict in Gaza, this track is not only devastatingly fantastic, but also really culturally important. Lead singer Jack Leavey originally started this track as a poem in response to such conflicts, and lyrics of sunlight being replaced for guard towers and the loss of young lives really highlight the desolation of current affairs. Leavey’s vocals here are magnificent and certainly a standout of the track from the musical standpoint. He switches between wails of sorrow to soft almost spoken words which works really well for such an important and hard to handle topic.
Poor Advice draws to a close with its title track. Despite the rather dark subject matter focused on throughout this project, Poor Advice as a song almost serves as a glimmer of hope against all the problems around the world. “In the darkest hour there’s a flicker of light, I know it’s not yet blinding but it’ll get us through the night.” These lyrics specifically stood out to me as a hopeful ending to such a bleak album, that no matter how desolate things may be, there will always be those who will fight for a world worth fighting for. This final track is seriously beautiful and is one of the best tracks displayed.
Poor Advice is an album that never really settles despite it’s frequent refrains, and that is probably its greatest strength. Poor Advice is a project that feels angry, anxious and sometimes completely overwhelming, but beneath all of that noise is an album with a remarkable amount of heart. Whether they are confronting institutions, questioning the world around them or simply documenting the messiness of being human, Basht. always bring a sense that these songs are searching for something better. Across ten tracks, Basht. have managed to turn frustration into something genuinely beautiful, by creating an album that feels both deeply personal and incredibly relevant. While some tracks around the mid section don’t exactly stand out individually from an instrumental standpoint, their deeper meanings remain extremely important to make up this release as a unit. Poor Advice is not an easy listen due to the subject matter, and it isn’t really supposed to be, but by the time its final flicker of hope fades away, it becomes clear that Basht. have made something far more important than just another loud and chaotic Irish rock record. They have made an album that demands to be felt, questioned and to be heard by all that need it.
Basht.: Poor Advice – Released 9 October 2026 (LAB Records)
