Pull In Emergency - Pull In Emergency

We like indiepop here at DIY. You do too probably. Well hopefully you do. Anyway, if you ask some of us here we’d tell you that there’s been a bit of a lack of bouncy indiepop in 2010. Quite the contrast to a few years ago when you couldn’t swing a ‘The’ without it becoming attached to another word and having a hit single. We all know that that scene got pretty stale pretty quickly however, but now is the time that we started paying attention to young ‘uns with guitars again because they (and by they we mean London five-piece Pull In Emergency) are a bit bloody good.

They’ve been said to have appeared from the Underage scene in London, and have all the resultant stigma that comes with such. It’s easy to deride music that’s this simple, this fun and this unpretentious after all, and if there’s one thing that the indie explosion of the past decade has taught us it’s that critics love to give decent bands a kicking, just because. Do this to Pull In Emergency however and it’ll be you that loses out.

Across opening track ‘Everything Is The Same’ guitars ricochet between the speakers and Faith Barker’s almost twee vocal recalls Thomas Tantrum’s Megan. With the repetition of the title in the chorus and the upbeat melody it’s very very likely to get stuck in your head. Of any comparisons that we could make, the closest that they come to any other band is the aforementioned Thomas Tantrum. It’s a similar brand of zingy artpop and exactly the sort of music that so pleases these ears. A bit wider of the mark and we can begin to see similarities to The Cribs early work (in the rough ‘n’ ready production) and perhaps even The Wombats (in a good way!).

Aside from ‘Everything Is The Same’ highlights come from past singles ‘15 Years’ and ‘In Silence’, the indie-disco-rific ‘What You Say’ and ‘Planes’ which provides the emotional core and some fantastical odd lyrics. “I’ll retrace my steps if you count backwards to February” is the one that sticks particularly in the mind, possibly partly due to the fact that it’s delivered over the bounciest riff that we’ve heard in quite a while. Not to worry if this isn’t your bag however, ‘Pull In Emergency’ finishes with two slower numbers; ‘Song 11’ and ‘Hold Still’ that show as much a smarter way forward as they do a reflective side.

Overall, if you’re waiting for some short sharp guitar pop then Pull in Emergency is out there for you. If you’re after something a bit more ‘cerebral’ then you can just bugger off elsewhere and we’ll keep the fun for ourselves.