Pinehurst Kids
Bleed It Dry
Barbaric
Now here’s a pop record I can dig. Their third album proper (and second for Seattle indie Barbaric Records), The Pinehurst Kids’ Bleed It Dry is an infectious slab of power pop, rife with saccharine hooks that stick in the head hours after the album’s over, and ones that stir the heartstrings ever so subtly while it’s in rotation, with boundless, youthful energy to spare even during its more bittersweet and downered moments • basically, there’s at least a pulse here, something most indie pop conspicuously lacks. Hardly revelatory or ingenious by any stretch of both words • after all, The Pinehurst Kids bear more than a passing resemblance to idiomatic exemplars Superchunk, but similarly stripped of that band’s cloying preciousness, thankfully • Bleed It Dry nonetheless captures the timeless essence of great pop: the ever-ambivalent formula of verse/chorus/middle break saturated with poignant vocals and even-more-poignant guitar work, the latter element guiding the album’s every move, that of which being to places both dynamic and driving. Granted, such is not even remotely this writer’s forte, but hey • if there’s one thing that’s true, it’s that I intrinsically know good pop when I hear it. And, without a doubt, Bleed It Dry is good pop.
Barbaric Records, 1809 7th Ave., Suite 411, Seattle, WA 98101; http://www.barbaricrecords.com
