Bad Flamingo’s new single Shame sounds nothing like what you’d expect from the masked duo. Gone are the banjos and Western noir, this is their full-blown 80s moment, built around a driving guitar rhythm that locks into a hypnotic groove.
The production stays deliberately understated, letting that pulsating bass line and those sharp guitar stabs do the heavy lifting whilst everything else simmers in the background.
Vocally, they’re still delivering that eerie, detached quality they do so well, but the instrumentation completely rewrites their rulebook. It’s moody, restrained, almost cinematic in how it builds tension without ever fully releasing it.
The song dissects a toxic relationship where shame gets passed back and forth like a bad habit: “You put it on me” repeated until it burrows into your skull.
Lyrically, there’s genuine darkness here. “Let me change into something that makes me feel dirty” isn’t subtle, and the late-night desperation feels uncomfortably real.
But here’s the problem: that hook absolutely batters you over the head. Yes, repetition can serve the theme, but after the fifth or sixth loop, it tips from hypnotic into grating.
Still, this pivot shows range. Whether it works long-term remains to be seen, but Shame proves they’re not married to one sound.
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