The Irish post-punk trio’s first new music since Something Soft is a song about the gap between what you say about your body and what you actually think.
M(h)aol are back with ‘Scam Manifesto’, out today via Merge Records and Tulle.
It’s their first release since Something Soft, the 2025 album which was one of my Irish albums of the year – “a collection of razor-sharp visceral punk songs that mostly let the noise do the shaking, with Constance Keane’s vocals (and Jamie Hyland) adding subtle meaning to the band’s elemental fury.”
The mew song came out of a break from being online, and it turns the band’s usual clear-eyed anger inward.
“My entire feed was ‘how to lose the last 5 lbs’ and obituaries for people I didn’t know. It’s about the guilt I feel about my own hypocrisy. Publicly, I say that as a woman it’s my right to be as ugly and old as I want and still value myself, while privately I was consistently fixating on a list of things I would change about my appearance.”
Constance Keane
That last line, one rule for others and another for yourself, is the sort of thing most bands would let slide rather than write down. M(h)aol have never been much for letting things slide.
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The band are Constance Keane on drums and vocals, Jamie Hyland on bass and vocals, and Sean Nolan on guitar. Sarah Deegan of Pixie Cut Rhythm Orchestra guests on backing vocals on this one.
It follows the Gender Studies EP, Attachment Styles and Something Soft, a run in which the band have consistently made songs about misogyny, consumerism and identity that are funnier and warmer than that list makes them sound.
Niall Byrne is the founder of the most-influential Irish music site Nialler9, where he has been writing about music since 2005. He is the co-host of the Nialler9 Podcast and has written for the Irish Times, Irish Independent, Sunday Times, Totally Dublin, Cara Magazine, Red Bull and more. Niall is a DJ, co-founder of Lumo Club, event curator, Indie Sleaze club promoter, and producer of gigs and monthly listening parties & events in Dublin.
