Pardon us are a pop-punk band from Liverpool who formed in 2014. Some of their members have also played in Flamingo 50, the Down and Outs and Town Bike (No I’ve not heard of them either but I have heard of Pardon Us). They can be seen on the bills of DIY gigs, festivals and all-dayers around the UK, and are often compared to Jawbreaker, J Church and Off With Their Heads (mmm Nah me neither). This is their debut long-player and it’s been worth the wait let me tell you.  If you’ve never heard of them until you read this then let me give you my take on ‘Wait’.

‘Wait’ is the work of three people who make a very tasty racket, very tasty indeed.  Its loud (hooray) its got melody (hooray) some great lyrics and the album is full of fuckin’ bangers.  Drawing their inspiration from a load of places there are moments of classic Jam happening and also some early punk roots like Husker Du and I’m also having shards of Stiff Little Fingers punching through their wall of sound. I love the simplicity of ‘Brains’ with the gang backing vocals and raw guitar these boys know how to write top tunes.  At times it’s so raw its savage but its always wrapped in a melody which is where I get my SLF and Jam influences from. There is an air of joir de Vivre about it, they’ve penned ten pop songs and played them through distorted guitars with a reckless edge and youthful abandonment at times it could be some britpop fops playing punky or a Supergrass in the melodies songs like ‘Brains’ have a touch of the Jam about them if they went pub rock instead of soul boys.  The arrangements impress me with the gang vocals and attack on the riffage being just loud guitars and not using a wall of virtual sound technologies. ‘Counting Backwards’ is like screaming on top of a mountain and then rolling down it like a big kid and without a care in the world. 

I go back to my influence obsession and will site Husker Du and throw in a Replacements (a little bit at least when they were young) and some Buffalo Tom as well on ‘Thankful’.  The Scouse accent comes through loud and clear and I like that on ‘Phil Ochs’.  ‘If The Black Shirt Fits’ is off like a speeding bullet and the vocals are stretched to the limit. Raw and passionate it’s one of the best tracks on the record for sure.  when I stumbled across the singles a while back I found the band really exciting and the album has realised those expectations and that pleases me greatly because after all said and done and all the musical comparisons I could muster Pardon Us is fresh and exciting and the main thing is the songs are bloody good and that’s job done for me. Signing off with ‘We Are The Champions’ is a good place to finish seeing as its true these three are indeed champions.  If they rock up in your town go see em and tell em RPM sent you – you won’t be disappointed – great album!

Buy Wait Here

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