Where most bands’ albums are a collection of songs that act, largely, as a bridge between two or three singles, Tethered Together seems to flip that ratio between singles and album tracks on its head. And even then, the songs that Push Puppets feel might not deem suitable to go out into the world in their own right still equate to the sort of song that most bands would be more than happy to have as a lead single.
And that is undoubtedly because Push Puppets sound as if the sonic charts and musical compasses they use to guide their creative course are from an earlier and more enlightened time. A time when the best bands curated rock, pop, and indie strands into a style of music that is in short supply in the current age. Bands such as The Church, XTC, Crowded House, and Del Amitri — echoes of which can all be heard running through the heart of this album.
Even by track three, the deft and delicious “Probably” you realise that singer-songwriter and guitarist Erich Specht can write songs that give Justin Currie a run for his money and “Alltogether on 3” which follows, finds him making music that would have Neil Finn wondering why he hadn’t written it.
But of course, one person does not a band make, and John William Lauler and Greg Essig’s respective bass and drums make for the perfect engine room, knowing exactly when to put the foot on the gas and when to let things coast along under the gentlest of power. Similarly, songs like “Launching A Satellite” come alive with guitarist Steve Frisbie’s additional textures, and the gentle reggae-infusions of “Hearts are Fragile” would be a lesser song without Kyle Magnusson’s chiming piano and additional sonic weaves.
And even “Shake It Like You Mean It” heads far beyond a straight rock and roll groove with the addition of shimmering washes of scintillating synth, banks of harmonies, and a string quartet working its magic.
Tethered Together is not the music of the past, but it is music built on an older, more robust, and more sonically meaningful set of values. Push Puppets is a band setting wonderfully high benchmarks in both songwriting and delivery. Other bands take note, and take them on at your peril.
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