REVIEW: The Pearl River Band’s latest single, ‘Come On In’
The Pearl River Band are back as strong as ever with the song ‘Come on In’, arriving just a few months after February’s stellar ‘Succumb to the Devil’. Despite playing their first gig less than a year ago (at this magazine’s festival, no less) the Sheffield six-piece are already on their third single, with each release adding new layers to their already well-established style. They’re in good company too, carving out their own niche alongside local staples Any Old Iron and Femur in the field of reshaping classic rock as they see fit.
But, make no mistake, The Pearl River Band are no nostalgia act. You could spend all day trying to work out the influences on each aspect of the music (some John Squire guitar-work here, some Ginger Baker-esque drums there) and still come away with no clearer an idea how exactly The Pearl River Band have made a sound that sounds so them. Sure, you can picture a song like ‘Come On In’ soundtracking a Laurel Canyon party circa 1968, but you can just as easily imagine it being played before an Oasis or Supergrass show in the mid-nineties.
Like all great music, it’s timeless.
With vocalists Margo Osbaldiston and Luke Thompson singing “…I’m the crooked one you have to fear…” and Rowan Slater providing some supremely Doors-y keyboards, The Pearl River Band are building a psychedelic sonic world to get lost in. Anchored by a restless guitar workout courtesy of Ben Deegen, ‘Come on In’ feels like stepping back into the murky tail end of the sixties, when the flower-power curdled to something less optimistic and the music followed suit. The whole band are firing on all cylinders here, but the rhythm section of Rob Page on bass and Benji Wilson on drums are really the unsung heroes of the track, synchronised to the millisecond and keeping things confidently on track whilst the guitars, vocals and keys dance about in the stratosphere. This is the sound of a group playing with the self-assuredness of a band that have been together much longer than just nine months.
I can’t wait to hear where they go from here.
You can listen to ‘Come On In’ on Spotify.
Words: Sam Wilkinson
