Manchester’s Drone-Pop heroines release monotonous sophomore album. Everything that PINS do is underpinned, no pun intended, by a stylised uplifting melancholy. Second album Wild Nights is chock-full of the stuff. From the lyrics to the faux anthemic Drone-Pop music, PINS are trying to create a level of cool that they fall short of pulling off.
‘Baby Bhangs’ is infectious, malicious and catchy. It does everything that an opening track should do; it draws you in quickly and lets you know what’s to come. Indie Drone-Pop with a Northern sensibility. It doesn’t outstay its welcome either. After three minutes it’s all over and all you’re left with is a vague memory that it was good. ‘Young Girls’ is a cleaner sounding pop gem. The harmonies work so well you wonder why the whole song wasn’t recorded with them. The main riff has the power to get lodged in your head, if you let it, but you probably won’t, as when ‘Young Girls’ finishes you’ve already forgotten it as you want to see how the next track will pan out. This carries on for the next few tracks. Each one is delightful while you’re listening to it, but you might find it hard to remember anything about it afterwards, expect that it sounded a bit like the Brian Jonestown Massacre, but with female vocals.
While the album is effective at conjuring up the feelings and emotions of being in a band in 2015, at times it isn’t as polished and, well, as good as PINS want you to believe. The lyrics have a slight sixth form vibe about them, and after the halfway point the songs start to sound the same. Considering that the album is only thirty nine minutes long this isn’t such a good thing. Wild Nights? Mild Trite perhaps would have been more fitting.
[Rating:3]
Wild Nights was released on 8th June via Bella Union.
