The Pigeon Detectives
Album: We Met At Sea
Label: Cooking Vinyl
Tracks: 10
Website: http://www.thepigeondetectives.com

The survival of the Pigeons, a likeable if lightweight addition to the crest of mid-to-late noughties indie rock, is a pleasant surprise. It shows a certain tenacity, an inclination to recover from bust ups and walkouts and the sheer bloody mindedness it takes to keep a band on the boil.

After two top ten albums - Wait For Me and the Stephen Street-produced Emergency - the band failed to convert early promise and fine showings at all manner of festivals into the misfiring third elpee, Up Guards and at 'Em!

Which brings us to this unexpectedly beefy fourth outing. Abandoning the thin guitars and sweet harmonies, as well as the occasional Dexys-esque horn forays, in favour of turned up guitars and chants, songs like Can't You Find Me and I Won't Come Back have proper rock swagger where the Pigeons used to be a bit flyaway.

Old fans will be glad of the harmony brought to bear on tracks like I Don't Mind and Day and Month, but there's an added urgency about songs like Animal and Hold Your Gaze, riffs are more definitely than maybe and the major-minor chord shifts sound sharper, shinier and more sincere. Unforgettable continues the theme and even if No State To Drive is more student union than trade union, it shares the same melodic DNA as the chunkier material on display

Nick Churchill
www.thegranvillechambers.co.uk