M(h)aol – Scam Manifesto

The title of M(h)aol’s new single nods to Valerie Solanas’ SCUM Manifesto, the kind of reference that tells you exactly what register “Scam Manifesto” is working in before you’ve even hit play.

It’s the Dublin trio’s first new music since 2025 fantastic’s “Something Soft”. “Scam Manifesto” is out now via Merge Records, with Constance Keane on drums and vocals, Jamie Hyland on bass and vocals, and Sean Nolan on guitar, joined on backing vocals by Sarah Deegan of Pixie Cut Rhythm Orchestra.

Keane wrote the song during a break from social media, after noticing her feed had turned into weight loss advice sitting next to obituaries for strangers. The song sits with the gap between what she says in public, that a woman has every right to be as old and unglamorous as she wants, and what she was privately fixating on about her appearance. As she puts it, “it’s about having one rule for others and another one for yourself.” What I like is that the track doesn’t resolve that tension. The spoken-word delivery stays deadpan through abrasive, almost industrial guitar, like she’s reading the contradiction out loud rather than trying to explain it away. It’s an uncomfortable song to sit with, and that’s clearly the point.