ALBUM REVIEW: PINS – Girls Like Us
To say that Sam Willis has been excited for the debut LP from Manchester based four-piece PINS is a catastrophic understatement
Album Reviews | Released
PINS
Girls Like Us
(Bella Union)
30th Sept 2013
4 out of 5
Like many of you out there I have been on tenterhooks waiting to hear the first full length effort from the fiery post-punk quartet.
The girls, namely Faith, Lois, Anna and Sophie, have been on the tip of everybody’s tongues since their humble beginnings playing shows in disused office blocks and hotel basements. They have since witnessed the release of a super-exclusive gold cassette single, which flew off the shelves of the group’s very own Haus Of Pins label within 24-hours, and the rousing reception from the fantastic ‘LuvU4Lyf EP’ – released last autumn on Bella Union. The band has been dripping us drop after succulent drop of material since their conception, including tracks; ‘Stay True’, ‘Girls Like Us’, and ‘Lost, Lost, Lost’, but the time has finally arrived for the unveiling of the band’s full length release – ‘Girls Like Us’ – and it’s a fucking stonker.
The album was recorded at Liverpool’s Parr Street Studios for its vast selection of analogue gear at break-neck speed – it was recorded and self-produced within the staggeringly short space of just one week. The girls used found sounds to give ‘Girls Like Us’ the desired sound, including footsteps from the control room to the vocal booth and tea towel muffled floor toms, which can be rewarded for much of the album’s tribal-like qualities. The girls have embraced the DIY ethos of punk and created an album completely off their own backs – a rare commodity to be treasured in the current age of popular music.
Kicking off the LP is ‘It’s On’, a song resurrected by bassist Anna from front-woman Faith’s back catalogue of home recordings. Its powerful bass lines, echoing guitars, mesmerising 4-piece backing vocals and punctuating stabs of ritualistic drums create a primeval atmosphere which will stick for the remainder of the album. Next up is ‘Girls Like Us’, a relentlessly driving track full of everything we have come to expect from a PINS tune; banshee wails, echoing guitars, pounding drums, gang vocals, a chorus that drills itself into the brain and an overwhelming brilliance. The hook “I think I’ve gone mad, but it was fun” runs throughout the midsection, highlighting the sense of letting go that features heavily in the record as well as providing a chorus you will soon enough be singing in your sleep. Further along ‘Lost Lost Lost’, one of the standout tracks from the record appears with its echoing monotones, howling vocals and cacophonous crescendoing chorus in which Faith screams “I’m Lost”. After the short spoken interlude of ‘Velvet Morning’ the gang vocals and primal drums of ‘Stay True’ echo from the abyss. Probably my favourite track from the album, the tune uses all of PINS’ tool-kit to weave together a punk anthem about well… staying true – a message carried throughout the album.
To keep things short and sweet this album is awesome. Buy it. Now.
Sam Willis
