Declan McKenna: 'What Do You Think About the Car' Album Review

A teenage angst album: but instead of relationships, it’s about the government.

Four stars.

As Declan McKenna will admit himself, ‘What Do You Think About the Car?’ is very much a debut album.

It is an eclectic amalgamation of singles that explore many different avenues but loosely tie together through themes of teenage confusion, politics, and synth sounds.

While it is not a concept album, it does not strip away from the fact McKenna was only 16 when he wrote most of this record.

However, this was not actually his youngest contribution to the album. The title is inspired by a home video in which Mckenna’s sister asks, “Dec what do you think about the car?”. Four-year-old Declan responds, “I think it’s really good, and now I’m gonna sing my new album”, which is certainly a unique and personal way to start the LP.

Politics was always going to be a bold theme on the album, particularly as McKenna danced around stage wearing a “Give 17-year-olds the vote” t-shirt on his debut appearance on Jools Holland. And I think this album proves his point. He has clearly shown that young people are in fact intelligent and that complexity in song writing can become popular.

The closing track ‘Listen to Your Friends’, the only song of his written collaboratively with former Vampire Weekend member Rostam Batmanglij, is a great example of lyrical excellence. Towards the end of the song, it breaks away from the country sounding melody to spoken word “The problem is poor kids who can’t afford the train fare / So we up the train fare / And charge them for not paying the train fare.” These lyrics still apply five years later, with there being an increase in train fares by 3.8% this year.

Strong influences on this album are David Bowie and The Beatles as McKenna uses the juxtaposition of dark lyrics and upbeat instrumentals to represent several societal issues. Global politics is explored in his debut single ‘Brazil’. The jangly guitar sounds contrast with the lyrics to present what was publicly seen on the forefront of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil compared to the actual corruption behind the scenes.

This is also experimented on ‘Isombard’ which has video-game sounding synths and lyrics surrounding police brutality and the drum machine heavy ‘Paracetamol’ about transgender teenager Leelah Alcorn who hung herself after being put through conversion therapy. The fact Declan wrote this song simply on a walk from the studio to the train station highlights his lyrical genius.

My only criticism of the album is the basic guitar riffs in ‘Bethlehem’, which do not do the important lyrics about the hypocrisy of religion any justice. If this was a song by a regular indie band, it would be a highlight. But because by this point, we know what McKenna is capable of, it becomes skippable.

Although I prefer Declan McKenna’s second album ‘Zeros’, as it sounds like a body of work, ‘What Do You Think About the Car?’ remains a strong debut album, nonetheless.

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Reflection: During my music journalism module, we were allocated random albums to review and had to pick a publication to 'write for'. I decided to adopt an NME approach and therefore, also use their house style.