Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Punk never died, but it is fairly obvious that someone thought it could be packaged, stamped, and sold as the music for all, when the truth is it sits in the soul of the fractured, the damaged, the creative, and the doggedly unrepentant as a singularity, as an offering to the mind that cannot, or will not be tamed, the mind that knows that anger, as John Lydon was to remark, is an energy, one that is constant and driven by the view of the world that refuses to be bought.

Punk never died, it just required the constant injection of truth, the embrace of the memento mori that comes from seeing the world in its true form, one of overcoming pain and sorrow and healing, of being in tune with nature and each other, and not one of excess and marketing to the point of dishonesty, of portraying a lifestyle that is not only false, but based entirely on the charade of glamour.

There is insincere and bogus style, perpetrated by the icons of industry, in hock to the sham driven phoneys, and then there is the style of aggression, of rage, of poetry for the masses, and as they cater to their needs as Fractured Party Music rules the airwaves rather than the constant repetition of the new lords who see music as a commodity rather than an expression, a possession of what the soul begs for.

For Pet Needs, Fractured Party Music is not just a symbol of their drive and defence of a genre that some habitually knock for reasons best known to them, it is the belief of not being strangled by life and others who see the world as being nothing but a chance to impose their will, the job that requires subservience, the councils that wants servility, the wage slave in fear.

Think you don’t need Punk, then think again, for the balance Pet Needs brings in tracks such as the superb Tracey Emin’s Bed, Sympathetic Accent Syndrome, As The Spin Cycle Span, Kayak, the excellent Scratch Card, Punk Isn’t Dead (It’s Just Up For Sale) and Dallas, is a reflection of how life really is, sometimes the impression of dirty, of filled with the mundane and how even a spark of difference can thrill a day, is what the 99 percent actually feels, and whilst the adverts show deliberate excess is a sign of perfect life, it is a false and damning premise; for life is fractured, life is beautiful for being punk, angry, and admitting its faults, and by doing so it becomes the theme, the party music in which dance your heart out to.

A dynamic and excellent album, Fractured Party Music is the pet need we should make compulsory.

Pet Needs’ Fractured Party Music is available now.

Ian D. Hall