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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.