Courtesy of last.fm.com
Some days you just want to listen to really brilliant, original music. Others, you just need it to be loud and fun. The British band The Pigeon Detectives is perfect for the latter.
Hailing from West Yorkshire, England, The Pigeon Detectives is made up of vocalist Matt Bowman, guitarists Oliver Main and Ryan Wilson, bassist Dave Best and drummer Jimmi Naylor. No one would ever accuse this particular band of being overly creative or high-art by any means, but they are the kind of group you can sing along to in your car, dance to in your room or just use to perk you up any day.
The structures of their songs are simple, rarely varying from the typical verse-chorus-bridge staple, but are overwhelmingly catchy. Their choruses are simple and half-chanted, making it easy to sing along. This does get a bit repetitive (since just about every song they’ve done follows this model), but somehow it never feels stale. Their lyrics follow basic themes present in the lives of teenagers and 20-somethings, such as ex-girlfriends, rebellion and attraction.
Subtle, they are not. One of their more prominent songs, “You Know I Love You,” includes the lines “you wanna wait til it’s right, I wanna do it tonight . . . you know I love you, take off your clothes.” However, the band never imagines they’re something they’re not. They don’t try and argue that they’re a musically sophisticated group — they’re smart enough to recognize what they’re good at and stick with it. They might not be a critical darling, but their success in the UK speaks for itself.
So, at your next party, when you’re getting a headache from the whiney robots blaring out of your speakers (that’s right, I’m looking at you, Ke$ha) but don’t want to lose the energy, put on some Pigeon Detectives. You’ll learn the songs in minutes, and won’t have a musical hangover afterwards.
Howard is a member of the class of 2013.
