Pin Me Down - Pin Me Down

Very, very interesting Bloc Party-related things have been happening over the last few months. With the quartet officially on hiatus, the band (well, three of them) have embarked on various solo ventures: Kele Okereke’s solo debut is due in June, and Gordon Moakes has Young Legionnaire going on with former I Was A Cub Scout drumming powerhouse William Bowerman and ex-yourcodenameis:milo (and current The Automatic) frontman Paul Mullen.

Guitarist Russell Lissack’s bit on the side has been on the go a little longer though, and Pin Me Down (Lissack and American singer-songwriter Milena Mepris) are first out of the traps with new material, in the form of their self-titled debut. It’s a bit of a let-down, admittedly, but its two main faults are ones that the band can’t really help. For a start, Lissack’s day job has obviously taken up a lot of his time, so he could only ever send Mepris the parts he’d written via email. This sort of approach is conveyed rather well on record, sadly - it always feels disjointed no matter how good the individual tracks are.

The second pitfall for ‘Pin Me Down’ is the fact that there is no real drummer in sight. Expansion to a three-piece would have done wonders for the band, as you can imagine the record as a whole being beefed up by some actual drums. As it is, the rhythms aren’t terribly interesting, and there are even some nods to (some would say blatant rip-offs of) ‘Hunting for Witches’ (‘Oh My Goddess’) and ‘The Prayer’ (‘Everything Is Sacred’). Originality is not one of the duo’s assets, then, it would seem.

Mepris’ voice becomes quite annoying after a while, especially once you realise she can only really ‘do’ one kind of song: the up-tempo, four-to-the-floor one. Nine of the album’s eleven tracks fall into that category: only the decidely awkward ‘Curious’ and ‘Fight Song’ (which is much better) take things slower. Pin Me Down lack diversity, but they make up for it in pure accessibility. This album is as instant as the day is long; ‘Cryptic’ is the perfect opener. While it has been around for nigh-on two years, in album context it sounds every bit as good.

Then ‘Meet the Selkirks’ goes and tops it. An absolutely perfect slice of catchy-as-hell indie-pop, it is the record’s ace in the pack, and the best thing they’ve written to date. Nothing else here quite lives up to it. One thing can be said for the partnership of Lissack and Mepris, however: when they are on form, they are often very good indeed. This album may lack cohesion (but somehow it still beats ‘Intimacy’ in that department) and variety, but its hooks save it from being completely underwhelming. Time will tell if Pin Me Down develops into something more than just an outlet for extra ideas that no longer seem to fit in with Bloc Party, but if it does, there are definitely issues to be addressed.