Durry – This Movie Sucks

Indie Rock | Pop Punk

70%

 

Promoting movies is as much a craft as the act of making them, but it’s one that we rarely ever see performed to a high standard. Most of the time a generic poster, a trailer that spoils the entire plot, and the lead actors’ faces on the side of a bus, is about all we can expect. Occasionally though, a marketing campaign not only puts bums in seats, but enhances the movie, and once in a blue moon it can even have more of a cultural presence that the very film itself. Convincing the world that The Blair Witch Project was a true story turned a low budget horror into a massively influential cult classic, while more recently Barbenheimer became one of the biggest phenomenons of the 2020s. “In space, no one can hear you scream” became the most iconic line from the Alien franchise without ever being uttered on-screen, and at this point Pulp Fiction posters have become essential décor for student accommodation… even if you’ve never seen it. 

This Movie Sucks has had one of the best promotional campaigns I’ve ever seen for an album. From recreating classic movie scenes in low budget Be Kind Rewind style, to fully committing to the bit of creating their own fake pizza place, to fighting with their own Muppet alter egos – were it not for OK Go emerging from hibernation, Durry would be clear frontrunner for best music video several times over. Most bands would be happy to stop there, but that was just the start for our favourite sibling duo. Vinyl with as much attention to detail as a Jack White record, cassette tapes hidden away in custom N64 cartridges, sending fans on a scavenger hunt for custom VHS tapes. Not only has it been so fun and unique watching it all unfold, but it speaks so much to the band’s ethos and identity as a scrappy DIY outfit, who always go the extra mile, and wrap everything they touch in a comforting blanket of millennial nostalgia.  

Not that any of this was necessary of course, I was already on board for album two by virtue of how superb their debut was. I’ve listened to Suburban Legend so many times at this point that I keep putting it on again from sheer muscle memory. It’s just consistent banger after banger, never really putting a foot wrong, a fun time from start to finish. Unfortunately, that also makes it a hard act to follow. The songwriting on This Movie Sucks is a far more uneven affair – a forgettable chorus here, a bit of the band’s trademark wit missing there, the relatable loser club lyricism not always as articulate as I’ve come to expect. It’s especially noticeable when the band devolve to straight up punk on tracks like ‘Bully’ and ‘Start a Band’, which do nothing for me at all, but there are a few other minor blips holding the record back. The gang vocal verse on ‘More Dumb’ drags an otherwise great track into some quite cheesy territory, while the zoo metaphor on ‘Porcupine’ never really gets off the ground and the fun arrangement gets wasted on flat and uninteresting lyrics.

Thankfully there’s still plenty of the Durry I know and love to keep me coming back. The title track is an absolute classic, ‘Polaroid’ pairs a superb rhythm section with some moody retro synths, and while their debut spent a lot of time missing the good old days and wondering where things went wrong, this record matures quite naturally into a more positive mindset. ‘Wannabe’ shares a wonderful message of contentment; simply enjoying the life you’re leading rather than worrying about how it compares to everyone else’s. ‘Good Grief’ is home to a lot of effervescent carpe diem energy, while the tender folk of ‘The Long Goodbye’ feels like a sincere and heartfelt love letter to all the fans that helped set the band on this crazy path.

For my money though, Durry are at their best when they’re sharpening their socially conscious side, fusing their dry wit with a relatable message. ‘Monopoly Money’ and ‘IDK I Just Work Here’ both capture the opposite ends of capitalism and corporate greed – the former taking aim squarely at the fat cats on top (“When the game is over, Even kings are just flesh and blood, You built your house of cards, But in the end it falls apart, I hope it’s worth the time you spent, With all that made up Monopoly money“). The latter meanwhile feels like like an anthem for overworked minimum wage service staff the world over (“They’ll say that’s just the way, The real world works, Everything’s supposed to hurt, They idolize self-sacrifice, And demonize self-worth, And all the while, they’ll just sit back and ask, “Why no one wants to work?”). 

At the moment the exciting build up towards the album’s release may loom a little larger in my mind than the album itself, but admittedly the more time I spend with it the more it’s growing on me. I can’t say where my thoughts on the final product will ultimately settle, but in movie terms it currently feels a little more Temple of Doom than Empire Strikes Back. I think This Movie Sucks is one of those sequels that doesn’t quite capture the magic of the original, but I’m still 100% on board if it means revisiting a world I love and spending more time with two of my favourite characters.