Photo credit: Ren Faulkner
Panic Shack have made a welcome return with ‘Gok Wan’, a song that tackles the toxic culture of the ‘self-improvement’ shows that blighted TV screens during the mid-noughties.
On the inspiration behind the track, Sarah Harvey said: ‘Growing up in the ’00s we were bombarded with constant images of super skinny models and ‘IT girls’ as well as TV shows all about ‘looking good’ and ‘being thin’. We wanted to write a song that embodied the ludicrous nature of what we were consuming as literal children and how it affected us then and to this day.’
From Trinny and Susannah to squatting for five hours a day and the misguided mantra that ‘nothing ever tastes as good as skinny feels’, the band rally against this toxic advice with killer riffs and trademark wit: ‘If my stomach is flat and my ass is perky, maybe I can get everybody to like me’.
It’s a sad state that sums up the misogynistic nature that women still have to put up with but delivered with perfectly punky Panic Shack panache.
