Cruel Guards by The Panics

Cruel Guards is the third studio album by Australian indie rockers the Panics, released on Dew Process as the follow-up to Sleeps Like a Curse. It's a lush, patient, melancholy record, all slow-building guitars and wide open spaces, with Scott Horscroft's production giving every song room to breathe.

Triple J made it a feature album and then handed it the J Award for Australian Album of the Year; guitarist Drew Wootton said the band partied with the station's staff for days afterward. It debuted at number 18 on the ARIA chart, went gold, and later won the ARIA for Best Adult Contemporary Album, with Horscroft nominated as both producer and engineer. "Don't Fight It" is the song that stuck.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.