I missed this when it first came out but having liked the idea of a domesticated corvid and seen the striking sleeve it just had to be looked into further…
Pet Crow are a four piece from Derby, confidently managing to extract a distinctive sound from the conventional guitar/bass/drums line-up. The as-live sound is spot on with the echoing vocals appearing over the distant hills to slice through some aggressive drums and bass.
Opener ‘Harold And Maude’ (named after a 1971 dark comedy drama) has an introduction reminiscent of old standard ‘Can’t Get Used To Losing You’ but don’t be fooled, when the band crash in there is no easy listen as the vocals carve their own path on top. ‘She’s back’ is driven by a busy bass line and guitar fireworks, ‘Bazwatch’ name checks David Hasselhoff (of course) and is all over in a minute and a half.
‘Pressure Sores’ is my favourite, with the plaintive vocal (…why can’t I just be me?…) never resolved over the restless instrumentation. Heavy. ‘Let Your Hair Down’ is superb too, with twin vocals, dissonant guitar and a bass and drum middle eight as anything but light relief. The longer track finale ‘Absorbed’ incorporates many of the musical ideas from the rest of this short and loud but perfectly realised album.
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