Martha “Please Don’t Take Me Back”
WHITE VINYL SOLD OUT, BLACK STILL AVAILABLE!
Durham indiepop-punks Martha return with their fourth album, and it
might just be their best one yet. With their endlessly radiant hooks
dialled up to maximum setting, paired with another heart-rending and
relatable lyric sheet that reflects on the universal scars of the
pandemic years, Please Don’t Take Me Back is the work of a band in the
form of their life. It’s also an instant classic – one that’s both
smartly prescient and warmly addictive.
Recorded at Nottingham’s JT Soar by ‘Bad’ Phil Booth (The Cool
Greenhouse, Rattle, Grey Hairs), Please Don’t Take Me Back is a timely
collection of deliciously catchy pop songs about ‘resisting the
feeling that the good days are behind us’.
Two things set these songs apart. Firstly, the sense of resolution the
band provide by working through these fears to find what positivity
they can – making this the go-to record for your ongoing existential
crisis in 2022. Secondly, there’s the effortless brilliance which
ensures every melody cements itself to your memory from the very first
listen – album closer “You Can’t Have A Good Time All Of The Time” might
be their breeziest singalong moment yet, all wrapped up in a song
about the planet’s ongoing environmental catastrophe. You’ll hear
echoes of The Housemartins, The Weakerthans, Cheap Trick and Heavenly
in their sound, but ultimately it sounds like Martha found a way to
turn their strongest features all the way to 11. What better way to
process the aftermath of the past two years?
While their previous record – 2019’s Love Keeps Kicking – saw them
remaining defiant in a world that seemed to be breaking apart, Please
Don’t Take Me Back explores the scattered fragments of what followed
and tries to make sense of how we navigate the smoking remains.
First formed in the small village of Pity Me, Durham, in 2011, Martha
released their debut EP the following year on guitarist Jonathan
Cairns’ DIY label, Discount Horse. Tours on both sides of the Atlantic
soon followed, along with two albums for the UK’s much-missed indiepop
stable Fortuna Pop: 2014’s Courting Strong (also released in the
United States by Salinas Records) and 2016’s sophomore effort Blisters
In The Pit of My Heart (via Dirtnap Records in the US). In the
meantime, the band became figureheads for the UK’s DIY pop scene by
balancing their obvious talents with a clear set of ethics –
anti-capitalist, first and foremost – and an open-hearted warmth
that’s often absent from the foreground of punk rock.
Please Don’t Take Me Back is a fine addition to Martha’s discography;
their most life-affirming yet and a welcome ripple of light at a time
when it’s often difficult to see past the darkness. Listen and love:
the beat perpetual drives on.
