Album Review : Pull Tiger Tail - PAWS
- Written by Stephanie Stevens-Wade
Pull Tiger Tail were the hyped, hotly tipped 3-piece indie band of 2006. With a novelty name, a few popular songs on MySpace and neon clad indie kids for fans, 2007 saw the release of four singles but no album to show for their hard work. They haven’t exactly had the best of luck over the years after having numerous troubles with their record company and their website being hijacked by thieving, Romanian, Internet, spamming nerds. However two years after its recorded, 2006’s buzz bands debut album roars, conveniently named PAWS.
PAWS is carefully pieced together with old and new material with catchy dance pieces people are already so familiar with. It’s an album that will guarantee to brighten up your miserable summer with fluttery guitars and jerky rhythms and the unique vocals of Marcus Ratcliff with the occasional catchy chorus.
The album begins on a high note with ‘… for No One’. The upbeat cymbal and synth start is twinned with the chants of ‘wooo’ throughout to accompany the optimism in the lyrics, ‘I wouldn’t be scared, if I knew how it all ended. No I wouldn’t say no no I wont say no’. Followed by an old classic, and the first song we heard from the band in 2006, ‘Mr 100% Percent’ gives a darker tint to the oh so merry beginning. Another new creation, Loki follows with a slow tempo and dark stomping drums. As the pace quickens a choir is introduced, to chant ‘If this demon has it's way with me, he wants a hit in record time please, he'll kill me when I hit my peak, 'cause dead singers mean the money keeps rolling in’. This is a first for the tiger trio.
The 2007 release ‘Let's Lightning’ divides the old and the new. Singing passionately about indulgence, selfishness, and thinking more of and for oneself. The song gives a rush of excitement for change, to try something new. "I’m addicted to electric pulses/aren’t you sick of being automatic/don’t you wanna have it your way always?/I’m changing turning corners/this town aint big enough for me".
The popular 2007 release ‘Hurricanes’ has also been included in the collection with echoing haunting guitars and an added sense of adventure of leaving a familiar place and returning to see that everything has changed: "A hurricane hits, while we’ve been missing. Oh, can anybody tell me where the damage is?"
Other additions include the chart release from 2007 ‘Animator’ and MySpace favourites ‘Even good kids make bad sports’ and ‘Eugene’. ‘Air Born’ is the penultimate track of the album and is a personal favourite. It shows their progress throughout the years of being together, their maturity and their ability of using other instruments like strings to expand their sound.
This album is a great success for PTT. Each song gives a different vibe with different tempos added to the idiosyncratic voice and diversity of the bands playing technique that will always have you dancing. And not just the indie kids, this jam-packed album has been made for everyone to enjoy.
It may have taken the trio a good four years to piece together the old and the new but it has been more than worth the wait. It’s good to see PTT finally get this album out after the label issues they had to contend with and luckily it doesn’t disappoint.