Irish post-punk trio M(H)AOL make their return today with Scam Manifesto, their first new music since the release of their acclaimed album Something Soft. Released via Merge Records and Tulle, the new track arrives alongside a new music video and sees the Dublin band once again turn sharply personal observations into confrontational, cathartic punk.
M(H)AOL
Scam Manifesto finds M(H)AOL continuing to explore the tension between the expectations placed upon women and the often impossible standards we impose upon ourselves. Written by drummer and vocalist Constance Keane during one of her regular breaks from social media, the song takes aim at the relentless stream of beauty advice, ageing anxieties and curated perfection that can dominate online spaces.
Keane explains that the song grew from the uncomfortable realisation that there can be a gap between the principles we advocate publicly and the insecurities we privately carry. “Scam Manifesto is a song I wrote during one of my semi-regular social media breaks.”
Her social media feed, she recalls, had become a stream of contradictory messages: weight-loss advice alongside obituaries for people she did not know. That juxtaposition prompted Keane to confront her own relationship with appearance and the contradiction between rejecting conventional beauty standards while privately obsessing over the things she might change. The result is a song about hypocrisy, self-awareness and the difficulty of escaping the systems we might intellectually reject. Rather than presenting an easy answer, M(H)AOL turn that contradiction into something visceral, funny and uncomfortable.
The track also features backing vocals from Sarah Deegan of Pixie Cut Rhythm Orchestra, adding another voice to the trio’s increasingly expansive approach to their sound.
Formed in Dublin, M(H)AOL have established themselves as one of the most distinctive bands to emerge from Ireland’s thriving post-punk scene. Keane, bassist and vocalist Jamie Hyland and guitarist Sean Nolan combine abrasive guitars, driving rhythms and sharply observed lyrics, creating music that can be as vulnerable as it is confrontational.
Their work has consistently tackled subjects including misogyny, gender-based violence, relationships, consumerism and identity, while humour and queer joy prevent the band’s music from becoming weighed down by its subject matter. That balance has become central to M(H)AOL‘s identity, allowing difficult themes to sit alongside moments of absurdity, warmth and release.
Scam Manifesto follows the band’s run of acclaimed releases, including Gender Studies, Attachment Styles and Something Soft. The latter marked another significant step forward for M(H)AOL, with the band broadening their sonic palette without losing the urgency that first drew attention to their music.
Since Something Soft arrived, the trio have continued to build their reputation internationally, with the album featuring prominently on year-end lists and the band appearing in a KEXP Live Session. Their growing profile has cemented M(H)AOL as one of the key names in the latest wave of Irish alternative music.
Yet Scam Manifesto feels less like a straightforward return and more like a continuation of the band’s willingness to interrogate themselves as much as the world around them. Keane’s admission that she can simultaneously reject and participate in the beauty standards she criticises gives the song an immediacy that goes beyond a simple critique of social media.
It is precisely this willingness to embrace contradiction that has become one of M(H)AOL‘s greatest strengths. Their music doesn’t position its protagonists as having everything figured out; instead, it recognises the messy process of trying to navigate identity, insecurity and social expectations.
With Scam Manifesto, M(H)AOL once again turn that mess into something loud, direct and cathartic. It is a pointed return from a band whose most powerful weapon remains their ability to make deeply personal experiences feel unmistakably collective.
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