Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Punk never died…it was far too clever to allow itself to be put in the firing line of any critical bullet, it was canny enough to evolve whilst for the majority of time not selling its soul for the price paid by Dorian Gray as he dismissed the painting in the attic as a mere extension of his self, instead as it evolved it proved more reliable than the Blues which had to wait for the start of the 21st Century to become relevant once again.
Other genres have suffered similar fates, but Punk, which for many deriders proclaim that it ended as soon as it started, has found a way to be the required volatile anger of a generation of the disaffected and disillusioned, and whilst it is the sound of the electric angst and righteous demand, occasionally in the air of the electric free state it expands to an altered kind of consciousness, a Kind Of Acoustic revelry to arms, a carousing of the army that Punk holds in force, and in its dynamic reserve.
Following on the release of their top 20 album, Intermittent Fast Living, the urge to do something different, but within keeping of their ethic and ideas, was arguably too much to bear, for in Kind Of Acoustic the sensation of resonating anger is transformative, it is honest, it creates drama in the extreme, and it is pound for pound a joy to behold.
With four tracks taken from each of their three studio albums, the sense of integration holds sway in the mind of the listener, of pinpointing a type of beauty within preference, but expertly exposing truthfully the songs that can hold their own in an acoustic format.
Recorded at Our Lady Studio in the Welsh village of Borth and working alongside producer Mike West, Pet Needs explore the fascinating world of the reworking a crafted tune to its essentially minimalistic soul but still finding the angle in which it needs to snarl like a lion facing down a gorilla for supremacy of all it surveys.
In tracks such as Get Off The Roof, Overcompensating, Fingernails, the excellent Burning Building, and the stunning Fear For The Whole Damn World, Pet Needs triumph with demonstrative prejudice of cool, the image of them raising Hell in the deconsecrated church is palpable, exotic, colourful, insanely cool; and one on the end that declares that Punk isn’t dead, it just worked out a way to appeal to the majority without them realising it.
Pet Needs release Kind Of Acoustic on January 24th via Xtra Mile Recordings.
Ian D. Hall