From Reading come these bunch of sea-faring indie bandits bearing sea shanties a-plenty.
Having made a name for themselves on the same London scene that has spawned a generation of Doherty acolytes it was reasonable to expect this album to follow the same skinny jeans, skinny riffs formula that’s worked for so many of their contemporaries. Pete, however, has different ideas, with an album chock full of passionate love songs and a beefed up production courtesy of Gareth Parton (The Killers knob-twiddler).
Limited edition single “Knots” tumbles all over itself in an effort to describe infidelity with guilt-ridden lyrics such as ‘get out of bed, it’s the wrong one’. The song almost collapses in on itself, the drum beats becoming more and more urgent before a simple strummed chord stops proceedings. The ghost of Albion’s own band of Libertines looms large, but Pete and the Pirates have their own take on the wastrel’s myth – for a start they’re a lot more coherent. In a sea of bands clutching scratchy demos, content to recycle scenester rhetoric, Pete and the Pirates stand out by having more soul, and a bigger heart, than anyone you care to mention. A band to walk the plank for.