From the opening strums of "Every Time I Hear" and on to the Flying Nun-y single "I Can't Stop, we're in familiar territory. Elements of American jangle-rock -- think Shoes, Yellow Pills, etc. -- blend with snatches of sounds we can trace back to Brit pioneers (whole lot of C86 influence looming over this). But all that being said, the new album from Sharp Pins stands entirely on its own strengths.
Kai Slater uses Sharp Pins to pursue exactly the kind of material that seems to be directly inspired by all the stuff I listened to when I was younger which formed my enduring musical tastes. There's hints of The Clean here, a dash of Hüsker Dü even, some dB's, and maybe a suggestion of early Guided By Voices. "When You Know" charges forward like it came from the pen of a young Bob Pollard, while the sweet "Storma Lee" sounds a bit like any number of bands who've cited Alex Chilton's work in Big Star as a big inspiration. "If I Was Ever Lonely", a real highlight here, puts me in mind of Manchester bands (and site faves) Temple Songs and The Foetals.
Still, for all that seems so very familiar here, Kai Slater is not making a tribute album with Radio DDR. I mean, this is just pure listenable pop that touches upon the very best stuff that so many of us like so much. A chiming guitar, a fuzzed-out vocal, and a lyrical hook take something like "Circle All the Dots" into Cleaners from Venus territory. But on that one, we can hear a Byrds-y riff too. Slater is just so adept at crafting this stuff that Radio DDR just stuns. Clever, smart, and concise, the tracks on this Sharp Pins album are all super!
Radio DDR by Sharp Pins is out this week on Perennial Death.
[Photo: Jolie M-A]