Pet Needs feel wonderfully anachronistic – like a transplant of bygone ’00s styles that were popular with teenagers then largely disappeared. There’s is the sound of The King Blues, The Paddingtons, Larrikin Love, The Holloways… you get the idea. That may explain why they’ve actually managed to find a fairly sizeable audience on the live circuit, with choice support slots with Skinny Lister and The Hives, as well as headline tours of their own. It’s a fast-paced, adrenaline-filled noise that gets you moving, with lyrics that speak to the yo-yo of emotions that come with realisations of how shitty the world can be, but when you still have enough youthful vigour that you don’t get mired in cynicism.
Not that it’s all so cheery – the opening monologue gives a snapshot of where frontman George Marriott’s mind is: a mixture of the serious (packing in your career to jump in a tour bus) and the mundane (the vapidity of social media). The almost meta levels of self-awareness recur throughout (see ‘The Optimist’ and ‘Fingernails’) and remind a little of Art Brut, though they never quite get to those consistent levels of incisive commentary. However, in place of that are plenty of searing guitar riffs and even a few nods towards hardcore (‘The Burning Building’ is this close), but they always reliably pull back from the precipice and hit you over the head with a catchy chant-along or a chorus syllable that’s stretched far beyond its natural limit.
There are a couple of iffy experiments, like the pseudo-epic arena-rock of ‘Lucid’ and the wildly over-sentimental closer ‘Buried Together’. But the band are at their best leaning into what they know, even if it’s a little trite at times. ‘Sleep When I’m Dead’ is ostensibly a pop-punky go at the “live fast, die young” motif, though there’s a sly turn in the chorus: “I’ll sleep when I’m deeeaaaaaayyyd / or when I’m next in beeeeeaaaaaayyd” (you try and transcribe those elongated syllables). Similarly, ‘Separation Anxiety’ could be a little heavy, but the sincere repeated “I love you so damn much” hits just right amidst the bouncy ska-inflected melodies. And ‘Trip’ is pretty much just about going on tour, but the happy-go-lucky vibes are infectious and those “whoOOooOoa” moments are gonna kill when you’re day-drinking at a festival this summer.
Just a few years ago, the Colchester (now) four-piece were a bedroom project crammed in amidst regular day jobs. Now they’ve released three albums in three years, played 50 states in 50 days with Frank Turner, and you wouldn’t bet against their star rising a great deal higher with ‘Intermittent Fast Living’.
- Rats On Rafts - 7 February 2025
- cupcakKe - 24 January 2025
- Vampire Weekend /Teenage Fanclub - 10 December 2024