‘The PJP Band rock hard, yet their sound is keyboard led,’ the press release tells us. Yeah, I seem to recall the same being said of Keane, so I can’t say I was exactly champing at the bit to get my lugs round the band’s debut album ‘…And So It Goes’. But, against my expectations, they come belting out the traps with a full-on garage punk sound with ‘Disciple’ and I begin to wonder if perhaps I was wrong to be so prejudiced… and for the large part, it seems I was.
‘Might or Moses’ immediately follows, and it’ certainly passable enough, with a busy bassline, Single ‘Ole! We Ain’t Prey’ picks things up further with a good old drum-heavy, cymbal-crashing thrasharound reminiscent of early Killers, and the chunky bass that propels ‘Viscious Luck’ brings a definite energy to the song’s edgy pop vibe that calls to mind a punkier XTC (think a shoutier ‘Making Plans for Nigel’).
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When they’re not so at their best, however, as on ‘I Am a Racer’ they’re pretty standard radio-friendly punk-pop. ‘Karm & Condition’ sounds like a pub-rock take on The Stranglers and ‘The Chalk Divide’ gets a bit too Elton John to be any cop.
Closer ‘Embrace Her’ is a piano-plodder that has a rip-off of Take That’s ‘Shine’ as its framework. The brass doesn’t help, even in the context of the surging anthemic climax, because the problem is, it doesn’t really rock. We’re talking rock in the way that Toploader rock. Still, thee good outweighs the bad on here,and sometimes, it’s nice to be wrong.
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