Tough’ n’ tender Swedish garage-rockers THE PLASTIC PALS wowed W&H with their fab ‘Good Karma Cafe’ LP back in 2008 and they’ve been busy ever since, building up a fearsome live reputation at home and abroad and road-testing the tunes for this long-awaited follow-up.
Recorded across 2010-2011, ‘Turn The Tide’ may have endured a lengthy gestation, but it adds up to a masterful return. Highly respected Green On Red/ Giant Sand keyboard alumnus Chris Cacavas is again at the production helm (and adding organ/ Wurlitzer piano colouring as required) and the LP’s vibe-y, live feel perfectly suits Hakan ‘Hawk’ Soold’s elegant, but slightly scuffed songs of love, loss and heartache.
Consistency is the watchword where ‘Turn the Tide’ is concerned. Plenty of it plays to the band’s twin-guitar strengths (‘Travelling’ and the Dream Syndicate-esque amphetamine slow-burn of ‘Between The Devil & The Deep Blue Sea’ quickly stand out), while the knife edge domestic violence and retaliation narrative ‘A Couple Of Minutes’ (“a couple of minutes is all it takes/ his head under the water...and you don’t hesitate”) is redolent of the best of ‘Good Karma Cafe”s riffsmart power pop fare.
Great though all these are, however, they’re only half the story, for ‘Turn The Tide’ showcases a band with verve and confidence to burn. The restless, brooding majesty of ‘The Sweet Spot’ (complete with elegantly churning, Richard Lloyd-esque guitar solo) is the first place they really stretch out stylistically, though the slyly addictive, soul-tinged ‘Caramel, She Said’ and the heartfelt, roots-flavoured near-balladry of ‘Providence’ (the perfect vehicle for the midnight blue of Hawk’s distinctive croon) arguably surpass it.
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The recent single ‘Leave It ‘Til Tomorrow’ is perhaps the biggest surprise, though. With Hawk’s drudgery-inspired lyric (“every day is Groundhog Day and I’m slowly dyin’ inside”) grinding against the sinewy, Stones-y groove of the music, it could almost be The Pals’ very own ‘Miss You’. Whether it’s a one-off or not remains to be seen, but it works on its own terms and it’s even more striking as it presages the Afghan Whigs-style tension of the closing ‘Miracles’: a moody, shape-shifting power play where Hawk calls the Almighty’s motives into question (“I can’t conceive all of this suffering...was that your work?”) and the whole band muster sterling personal bests.
The Plastic Pals will be in the UK for club dates in London and several shows at Liverpool’s International Pop Overthrow Festival during May. Bearing in mind that ‘Turn The Tide’ amply demonstrates that fiery, intelligent rock’n’roll is in safe hands with them, do I really need to tell you that attendance is mandatory?
The Plastic Pals online
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