Labels: Inhaler Records
Review by: Joe Callaghan
There is very little I can say about 1 track, but infuriatingly it achieves what it is set out to achieve, and I am eagerly anticipating their upcoming full length. 3 and a half minutes of teasing, slick punk rock, with what can arguably be described as almost stadium-rock like qualities. This band have come leaps and bounds. I was lucky enough to see their first gig at a rickety old tavern in Pontefract a few days before Christmas around 5 years ago. Coming from a pedigree of local pop punk acts, I expected much of the same. Instead, it was dynamic indie rock like nothing any band from that neck of the words had ever come close to churning out. Gruff vocals, unexpected stops and starts, and lending equal influence from Dischord and No Idea. Back then, the focal aim was the unpredictable shifts in sound and time, which were undoubtedly impressive but it lacked a natural flow and order. Since then, Above Them have grown up and settled down. They’ve bought a house, gotten married and have developed an undeniably knack for writing enormous, driving punk rock songs with subtle complexities which are hidden deeper within the structures, but are equally as impressive as their stop-start-stop days as familiar faces behind a new guise. This kind of output should be huge, and somehow isn’t. You won’t hear a vocal as strong and distinct as Oliver Wood if you listened to the radio for a fortnight straight. This band could write the kind of chorus that will be remembered, and if they have hammered out a full length of songs of equal calibre to this promotional single, then there’s no reason why that shouldn’t happen.