Pushing Red Buttons
The Butterfly Net (The Orchard)
“It was Saturday night in a town without a curfew” and if there has been a better opening line of an album in recent months send it this way. So begins ‘The Butterfly Net’ by Pushing Red Buttons and you can’t help but question are the band playing for laughs with this release?
The growling vocals and the lead guitar riff that has probably been through a synthesiser effect immediately makes you think of a weak Van Halen track (theres more than a few to choose from) and the comparisons keep coming. ‘Too Late’ and ‘My Parting Shot’ could come from a pastiche film of the 70s and 80s with the high vocals being completely saccharine in their delivery and lyrical flow.
If Pushing Red Buttons were around in the 80s, theres a chance this record may be picked up no as a guilty pleasure and could garner some publicity and fans. However, as a modern day serious release, there needs to be a number of questions asked about who this album is really for and should it have ever been sanctioned in the first place?
Andy Reilly
