A Place to Bury Strangers
Pinned

THE REVIEW

An album oriented towards certain dark-wave sounds and derived from punk, especially today, truly makes no sense if it's anchored to Ptolemaic structures that lack flexibility and those excesses of claustrophobia, aesthetics, and militaristic citationism. Besides, these things no longer cause a stir: if at the end of the seventies people could be shocked by Sid Vicious wearing a swastika t-shirt, when Prince Harry did it like ten years ago, nobody gave a damn. This means that if you flaunt a swastika, you are not "provocative", you are just a jerk. Moreover, the "pop" culture is still full of trash, and there are many bands that have nothing to say and rely entirely on aesthetics. However, if we specifically talk about this musical genre, there are some like A Place To Bury Strangers who, by embracing a particular type of sound and attitude, are appreciated and valued for the concrete content of their music.

"Pinned," the new album by Oliver Ackermann's group, set to be released on April 13th via Dead Oceans, marks a grand return following the "Worship" (2012) - "Transfixiation" (2015) duo, which had established APTBS as one of the most respected bands in the alternative scene of this decade. The drive to improve, in this case, did not result in a regression in the usual indie direction but in a further turn (for a group that nevertheless has a shoegaze foundation) towards more noise sounds and forms that, even without reaching Telescopes' heights, permeate all the compositions of the album, making it less edgy and granting it those blurred characteristics and that form of expressionism typical of the genre (supported by the usual powerful and dominant rhythm section): this applies as much to the stronger tracks like "Never Coming Back" (the manifesto song and the first single released from the album), "Frustrated Operator," "Look Me In The Eye," "Too Tough To Kill" as to the more nuanced ones like "Attitude" and the more classic repertoire ranging from Tuxedomoon minimalism to simple schemes like Interpol.

Certainly noteworthy is the new addition to the group, Lia Simone Braswell, who completes the trio already formed by Ackermann and bassist Dion Lunadon and who provides a considerable contribution both for her qualities as a drummer and as a vocalist, contributing overall to opening new perspectives for the future for a group that here certainly confirms itself at a good level, somehow renewing a certain noisy NYC tradition that fortunately continues to endure over time.