The flitting and darting songs will sit well on daytime radio play-lists, and as such will reach the ears of the listening public.
Pete and the Pirates – Little Death
http://www.myspace.com/peteandthepirates http://www.peteandthepirates.co.uk/ http://www.munichrecords.com/
Mustering enthusiasm for Little Death, the debut album from Reading’s Pete and the Pirates, is more difficult than waking the dead. Energetic and brief, with memorable guitar-licks, these songs are no doubt easy on the ear, but they are exactly what you would expect from mainstream 21st century guitar music, and as such they fail to rouse interest.My greatest difficulty with this album is the vacuity of the lyrics. As with many songs written by young men they are about girls and drinking – not bad subjects per se – but singer Tommy Sanders fails to articulate his thoughts on these issues with any originality. Dry Wings begins with “Time for bed/Find a girl and go to bed,” and Knots with “Get out of bed/It’s the wrong one/Made out of lead/Get dressed instead.” Hardly inspirational.
Musically the Pirates do not offer much either. Nimble lead-guitar riffs are notable on Ill Love and Lost In The Woods, but anyone who has heard The Strokes or Franz Ferdinand in the last seven years will recognise the sound instantly. The similarities with these bands are most audible on jaunty Bright Lights, the album’s closer, but are present throughout. A redeeming fact about the songs is that they are almost all less than 2.5 minutes long, but this also means that they never develop into anything substantial or memorable.While this is an album made to a tired formula, no doubt it will find an audience. The flitting and darting songs will sit well on daytime radio play-lists, and as such will reach the ears of the listening public. Pete and Pirates may get some short-term success then, but on this evidence their music does not have the substance to win long-term fans.Words: Craig Pearce