Sticky (LP)

Gatefold transparent blue coloured vinyl with sticker sheet. Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes had just played the gig of their lives, headlining Alexandra Palace in London, when the world pressed the pause button. At first, they went into the studio to bottle that intensity, of being one of the best live acts in the country, with a number four album in 2019's End of Suffering. But during the uncertainty of the past year, where they snatched pockets of time to write together when they could, Frank Carter and Dean Richardson ended up with something far gnarlier, channelling all their frustrations and the grittiness of the city into 10 eviscerating tracks. Let's get one thing straight, though: "It's not a lockdown record," says Carter, "it's a freedom record".

'Sticky', their fourth album, clearly marks the next phase for the Rattlesnakes and was produced, for the first time, by Richardson. It solidifies the pair as one of the most exciting partnerships in punk-rock and Carter - since his early days in hardcore punk band Gallows and then as Pure Love - as a vital voice in UK music, rallying against injustice, the patriarchy, right-wing politics, and toxic masculinity.