The Pigeon Detectives - Wait For Me Album Review

The Pigeon Detectives
Wait For Me
Album Review

I usually hate it when I’m wrong. There’s a lot of male pride going about, I like to think I’m always right, I like to think I know what I’m talking about, and sometimes I lose money. This can be about anything: politics, football, poker, Big Brother, but especially music. Sometimes, however, I love it when I’m wrong. This is one of those times.

I should probably explain myself a bit better. I tend not to like chant-along songs. I tend not to like formulaic indie-guitar music. I tend not to like songs about girls. I just think it’s usually too easy for a band to write an album like that without really possessing any real talent and I tend to like music to challenge me. I just think there have been too many bands recently releasing a couple of decent singles, only for the album to massively disappoint as the band in question have written it too quickly, with very little talent. Having heard the singles I feared the worst for Wait For Me. Although all three have been catchy I feared the album would be full of substandard versions of these three, especially when the first two tracks on this album are the first two singles. However, when a band can write simple, sing-along songs, and write them well, there is nothing better. I found out that this is one of those times. I was wrong. I’m not sorry though.

The singles sound even better packed into this album than they do as stand-alone singles, and realistically just about every song on this album could be a single. There are so many quality lines and choruses jammed into this album that even before the third single comes in mid-way through the album. I can’t control myself and I’m hooked. In the way that Green Day or the Ramones used to do, the tunes just hit you in the face, grab you by the balls and drag you along at breakneck speed. There’s not that much variation or experimentation between the songs themselves, although there is a great dynamic within the band, knowing when to pause and when to change focus from guitar to drums to vocals, and there are too many quality choruses to keep you looking forward to the next one. I think the best evidence of this is on “Take Her Back” when the singer narrates the story of an older man meeting a younger girl on a night out, including the doubts. “What would her dad say if he knew? She’s on her knees, he’s twenty-two, I don’t think he’d like the difference, does that make any difference?” followed by the “Take her back, take her back, take her back to her place” chanted by the entire band as if to demonstrate the instincts in the protagonists head.

I was really surprised by the level of consistency in this album, I never doubted they could write some decent tunes, but this album is packed full of corkers. Even as I come to the end of this review, I’ve got it on in the background and I’m not sure if I want to finish writing until I’ve heard it all one more time, in case anything else occurs to me. I guess I really don’t know how to say goodbye to a gushing review of an album this good. Just buy it and see for yourself.

David Lapidus