UNIVERSITY’s humour melds into their music. After signing to Transgressive and taking the 'business side of their operation' more seriously, they decided to offset this grown-up attitude by pushing their music to more extreme and more absurdist places. “It’s a side effect of taking the rest of it more seriously,” Bowker says, with the band determined to trust their weirdest, funniest impulses.
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Released in 2025 to critical acclaim, McCartney, It’ll Be OK is UNIVERSITY’s statement debut piece. The album was described by MOJO as an “avant-punk iceberg harbours melodic invention and sensitivity beneath”, and by Dork as “seriously impressive stuff”, while DIY praised it as “one to simultaneously blow eardrums and provoke minds.”
While the music can be brutally heavy at times, it’s all cut through with the absurdist humour that is also present at the band’s live shows. On stage, they’re joined by balaclava-clad best friend Eddie, whose entire job is to play video games and hold up signs indicating the (often ridiculous and lengthy) title to the next song his mates will play. Of his role in creating the album, Smith says, with however many pinches of salt you’d like to take: “He laid everything down and told us what to record. He’d whip us if we weren’t doing it quickly enough and was pretty horrible to work with to be honest. He was like Frank Zappa, dragging us by the hair back into the studio when we were out having a fag.”
While they might be throwing out gags and urban myths out in all directions, the only thing truly undeniable is the remarkable energy of UNIVERSITY’s music, and the strength of their songwriting. Across its eight tracks, McCartney, It’ll Be OK travels to a superb amount of sonic landscapes, and is the heaviest album you’ll hear this year that is also this much fun.
