Pulled Apart By Horses - TOUGH LOVE

I've always struggled a little with Pulled Apart By Horses. They are a good bunch of lads and one of the only true success stories to emanate from one of the countries most fertile music undergrounds in the country - that's right - I'm talking about LEEDS muthafucker! Maybe I'm having problems admitting I'm jealous. After all they're the ones making the records and I'm the one sitting in a freezing cold office reviewing/selling 'em for a living. That's not the way it was meant to be but that's no reason why I shouldn't be happy for PABH. So 'Tough Love' has dropped and apparently it's make or break time for the band. The name itself may even be a dig at industry pressure to succeed, though I'm probably over analysing. Little fanfare is being made of it but they've managed to secure the production skills of Gil Norton (yeah, that dude who produced 'Doolittle' - one of the best sounding records ever made) which has helped hone their scatty punk style into something closer to stadium filling power rock. The riffs are rugged and rough, the beats are like 'two day old shit' (ie: hard) and the vocals are massive sounding. Just epic double tracked screaming that sees Tom(myboy) Hudson increase his vocal register by at least an octave. The falsetto scream on 'V.E.N.O.M' is right up there!!! Reckon a few fans will be loosing their voice attempting to sing along come festival time. Of course, with a sophomore album it's assumed a certain degree of maturity will corrupt the purity of the groups original intent but in PABH's hands it just means they sound more 'festival' ready than on their debut. A little steadier, a little phatter and certainly a little more crowd friendly in delivery. So, these lads ain't packing any mad punches or blowing my mind with advance riffs but they have successfully written a proper honest ROCK album that people will wanna buy. In the current 'where the fuck is the rock' climate that's pretty much a miracle. I really want them to be the new ACDC...i hope they make it. Good luck lads.