Somewhere between The Hold Steady and The Replacements or Soul Asylum and Husker Du with just enough rough assed Buffalo Tom slung in for good measure.  Vancouver’s Needles/Pins dish up a tasty din. With some sumptuous melodies wrapped in barbed wire overdrive and last orders vocals, this album just keeps giving, play after play.  Subtle yet thoroughly addictive.  Released via Dirt Cult Records . Ahead of the release Needles//Pins revealed the lead single ‘A Rather Strained Apologetic‘ and already I was sold but it was merely a glimpse into what was to come.  Sometimes you just want a record to not be clever or sing songs about everybody’s pandemic or chuck in a token ballad Needles//Pins are that band from top to bottom they just wanna cut some rug and just turn the amps up and rock out.

This isn’t Needles//Pins’ first time out mind it’s their fourth album. From the surging rush of opener ‘Woe Is Us’ this record just oozes class.  ‘Of Things Best Left To Chance’ is like a Nirvana melody on top of a steady beat whilst the guitars go all Bob Stinson and Westerberg at their best.  It’s a really unapologetic album that’s just kicking back and dishing out top tunes aplenty and if you’re in then cool, jump on board. If it’s not polished enough then just move on.  ‘Winnipeg ‘03’ has a cool organ honking away in the background just enough to layer a rather splendid melody on the vocals that screams warm beer on a hot afternoon.

‘Gleamer’ is a smouldering monster that builds over its short existence and those backing vocals are caveman-like and primal as the song just fades away into the distance. Splendid stuff.  the songs are all pretty much under three minutes and a lot of them are sub-two minutes which is just long enough ‘I Was Just Underjoted If That’s A Word’ is a great example as the song build to a cacophony of primal screams on top of swirling organs and a steady pounding beat that falls away to make room for the uptempo ‘Baleful’ and ‘Grow’ before signing off with the anthemic closer ‘The Tyranny Of Comforts’, then were done.  dust yourself down take a throat sweet catch forty winks then go back in for another swing but this time turn it up some more.

The raw vocal delivery is the perfect ying for the power-pop yang and it’s all tied together beautifully by the rough you up guitar tones.  This is something of an onion album (no it doesn’t make you weep) its got layers and layers going on and the next is more interesting as the last.  Top tunes thats a given, Top Bloody Tunes!

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Author: Dom Daley