Labels: Static Shock
Review by: Alex Deller
Since most of us residing in our punk rock cubbyhole have already decided whether we love or hate Sheer Mag this is a more redundant review than most, but what the heck “” I’ve been listening to it quite a bit so here are a few words. As I came to this band ass-backwards via their splendid second 7″ this reissue was initially a very mild disappointment: the songs are ‘there’, but the togetherness and the enormous punch they later came to pack isn’t quite in evidence yet. I mean, you can tell lead track ‘What You Want’ is a belter and get thoroughly carried away by the gloriously ebullient ‘Point Breeze’ thanks to its howling ay-ay-ay-ayyyyyahs, but it took repeated listens and seeing them live to really hammer home just what barnstormers they really are. Ultimately it mightn’t live up to the newer 7″ but it’s still better than good “” the mix of punk, glam, soul and pop sounding effortless and ultimately ensuring Sheer Mag will be the yardstick by which all the blog bands hurriedly inserting ‘glam’ as a Bandcamp tag will be judged.