REVIEW: GANS - Good For The Soul

Listening to GANS's new album Good For The Soul, it’s hard to believe this is their debut record. For many artists, this time in their life-cycle can be a chance to explore and refine their sound, however for GANS it’s apparent they are already ahead of themselves. Good For The Soul has a bold, confident energy that is sure of itself from the very first beat. A wall of sound impressively built by THOMAS RHODES and EUAN WOODMAN, two mates with roots in the Black Country, who came together to create the powerhouse of a project that is GANS. Evidently, the stream of singles they’ve released since their inception have won the well-deserved attention of some figureheads on the scene, gaining 6 Music airtime and already having toured with THE LIBERTINES and BIG SPECIAL. 

Upon first listen, it’s a record to move your body to. It’s an intense layering of elements that exist in harmony; static-y vocals, synthy beats, skuzzy guitars, and trancey tones. Beneath the energetic noise, whilst not immediately noticeable, but there are intricately personal themes that run deep through the lyrical journey GANS are taking you on. And this isn’t a surprise, with the duo noting "how the race to fulfil ourselves can become futile if we don’t confront the issues within us first".

The front end of Good For The Soul hits you with immediate energy that you can’t help but move to. The first track A Fool leads you in with anticipatory thrumming vibrations, with the album's first statement: "GANS is Good For The Soul". Before long, we’re introduced to the droning guitars and distorted vocals vital to the album's intrinsic make-up, becoming a fitting soundtrack for a cinematic fight scene. This temperament is upheld, with It’s Just Life delivering a timeless anthem deserving of dancefloors big and small, lyrics worthy of stadium echoes. 

Halfway through the album, a sharp tonal shift stops you in your tracks with Everything In Extreme, an atmospheric and comforting track with ambient trance undercurrents - a solid reminder that GANS are a band with range. This moment is sonically short-lived, with I Think I Like You kicking us back into gear whilst holding onto the emotion, shouting "I find you special in such ways that you have lost but not forgot". 

As we near the end of the record, the energy remains relentless. Oh George is a gritty and raw commentary on loving those struggling with their mental health, cascading into an outpour of everything GANS have put into the record start to finish in one final moment. The final track Well Done plays us out with a stunningly cerebral piano track that feels like a memory, a final reminder that this is a record that contains more than initially meets the eye (or ear).

For an album recorded in the idyllic tranquil of the Welsh countryside, the image it conjures throughout is largely contradictory - a vivid scene of a steamy pub basement full of jostling music fans, beers spilt, lit by the flash of a strobe. Both scenes sitting at opposite ends of a spectrum, are equally sentiments deserving of the albums namesake. And even more so, it’s apparent that it’s been Good For The Soul for GANS to work through the trials and tribulations of life through the most beautifully cathartic medium of music. They’ve come out the other side of that process with such a solid record, a sure sign of a definitive and unique sound that will carry the band far. 

Score: 8/10

Good For The Soul will be released on September 19th 2025 via Strap Originals.

Words: Georgia Grant

Photos: GANS