Pink Suits: Political Child – album review

Pink Suits – Political Child   

(Self released album)

Vinyl (out soon) / DL (available here now)

Keith Goldhanger introduced us recently to Pink Suits claiming recent single Fake Great Britain to be one of his favourite tunes so far of 2021. Now he’s back to tell us about the debut album.

This isn’t an easy album to tell you about. At times this sounds like a couple of Butlins Redcoats shouting and swearing about the stuff you and I would agree need shouting and swearing about and at other times it sounds like Jack White and Eve Libertine singing something that would sit alongside Ant Rap or a thousand other basic punk rock tunes that have not stopped being written since about 1978.

One or twice Pink Suits have the Crass-like vocals down to a T (Second and third track Decades Back or Salute to the Sun for example). Whether it’s intentional of not doesn’t matter. They are like Crass at times whether you want to admit it or not. Some may consider the idea of this good and some may consider this not so good. One massive difference between the two acts is that Crass were never to be seen arsing around a small town English shopping centre dressed all in pink whilst synchronised dancing or throwing sand at a Punch and Judy performance on a small town English beach. Another big difference is that this duo consist of just drums and guitar, oh how we miss those military drum rolls that the anarchists from Essex were good at. This’ll do though.

Pink Suits have arrived with their debut album and well…..it’s alright.

We need bands like this.

Bands that to some are simply stating the bleedin’ obvious (eg ‘Trump’s a racist!’).

So far, the personnel recently responsible for venting their anger at the country we’re living in at the moment with a musical accompaniment have done it with the anger and harshness it deserves but not in a way that will attract the attention of the grandmothers and grandfathers of 2021 who will surely be the people having these arguments about whether this is genius or whether this is bobbins (can we start calling this Grandparent Rock or is it too early?)

Fake Great Britain, the first tune we heard from the duo made us automatically hit the share buttons in order to get some reaction from those around us. But no one blinked, no one wanted to be the first to scream at it, laugh at it or claim it the best thing since the Toy Dolls covered Nelly the Elephant. Some people blocked us, some people swore they’d never listen to anything we sent them again…….but an equal amount of people have not stopped playing it and want more.

When some of us southern softies first started listening to Chumbawamba it was because they made us laugh. Some of us thought to begin with that this was a band that were also a little bit like Crass (The dual vocals being a favourable element with both bands) except they had a bloke that (we thought) sounded like John Noakes from Blue Peter singing lead vocal. Then we realised how ace their lyrics were and we began chuckling along with them as opposed to at them (the content of the vocals also being a favourable factor). On the one hand, this country we live in is so fucked up we need the likes of Benefits and Bob Vylan to help us get through the day and on the other side of the coin…..PHHHhhtttt ! Look ! There’s a fucking clown in the driving seat with Lord Snooty and Aunt Fuckin Sally turning up on the news regularly contradicting themselves, spouting offensive sound bites and getting more obscene with every decision they make and because they’re still getting away with it we need more people on our side to kick against these pricks.

So if this this means every fuckin’ band on the planet needs to start calling these people out then so be it. It wasn’t that long ago people were moaning about bands not having a great deal to sing about therefore if beer swilling punk rock dinosaurs want to start dissing bands such as Pink Suits (and they will) then they need to think again.

This is an album that’s been done well, it’s a good start and if twenty or thirty other bands want to come along and repeat the same message then it’ll be slightly healthier than hearing another song about how good you’d imagine someone might look like on a dancefloor or how everything is average nowadays.

Pink Suits are a band that can bring a thousand different smiles to the face of the listener. Everyone will have different reasons for liking it and there may be one or two reasons for not liking it. Which is OK. People will hate this or love this or even just laugh at it. Laugh at it like we laughed and punched the air when we first heard Chumbawamba in the 80’s or even Shampoo (who, lets face it didn’t really have much to say that could enhance anyone’s life) back in the mid 90’s maybe?

Some of you might think this the biggest pile of shite ever but already you just know that given half a chance of watching this duo live one day to play us these songs you’ll be there. Even if it’s just the once. Some will keep coming back if they put in the graft and at the moment there are still some people who haven’t worked out yet where they stand on this. But we definitely want to stand in either a field, a sleazy swanky late night cabaret bar , a punk rock squat in Leipzig or The Old Blue Last on a wet Thursday night one day to watch this in front of us given half a chance.

If this makes you reach out for those Hagar the Womb, Dirt or Flux of Pink Indians albums again then so be it. Job done. We can smirk and go back to the past for many comparisons, but the subject matter here is pretty much the same. Why are we still having to shout about ‘(Harsh times and hate crimes’) and intolerance being ‘on the rise’ ? Maybe it could have helped if The Spice Girls had been given a song such as  ‘Fake Great Britain’ whilst the five piece were in their prime then bands such as this may not still have to exist. Pink Suits have the potential to get under the skin of some listeners who may need to take a good look at themselves, just as we all do at times maybe ? (or at least be aware that we’re not all perfect).

This is entertainment, this is fun, this is angry shouty sweary (divisive) basic guitar and drums punk rock made by two people who seem to know how to entertain and shout about the stuff that needs shouting about. These are the good guys and there’s always room in this world for nonsense such as this. Have a listen and Object, refuse, reject or abuse it at your will.

It’ll be available on coloured vinyl once they arrive from the factory (if they get through customs thanks to fucking Brexit delays).

You already know which colour.

Pink Suits can also be found on Instagram  or Facebook

Words by Keith Goldhanger. Photo by Kathryn Betts. More writing by Keith on Louder Than War can be found at his author’s archive. You can also find Keith on Facebook and Twitter (@HIDEOUSWHEELINV).

Source: louderthanwar.com