Martha - Blisters In The Pit of My Heart (Album Review)
Thursday, 14 July 2016
Written by Huw Baines
Bubbling just below the surface, there’s a group of UK bands keen to redress the unfair assumption that pop songs are music’s emptiest vessels. Among them you have Trust Fund, Alimony Hustle and Happy Accidents, but at the front of the line, and with their second LP, ‘Blisters in the Pit of My Heart’ tucked under their arms, are Martha, a power-pop quartet from Pity Me, Durham who grew up punk and now spend their spare moments cramming as many hooks into three minute songs as they can.
Having released a giddy, exuberant debut, ‘Courting Strong’, a few years ago, Martha have, with the help of returning producer and Hookworms frontman MJ, added a little more dirt under these songs’ fingernails, nodding to their roots with extra fuzz on their guitars and further prominence for Naomi Griffin’s bass. But their stated aim remains the same: these are pop songs that want to get under your skin quickly while opening up a conversation.
‘Blisters…’ is home to verses that would be the best choruses many bands could muster, with its litany of memorable moments delivered without pause for breath. Where many of their contemporaries look to the Beach Boys or the Zombies for inspiration, Martha are in thrall to Pauls Heaton and Westerberg, Billy Bragg and Alex Chilton. There is no room here for the esoteric - save perhaps the feedback that begins and ends the LP, giving it a sense of circularity - and its nods to the past are more lyrical than musical.
The Replacements’ back catalogue underpins St. Paul’s (Westerberg Comprehensive), while the December boy of Big Star’s September Gurls reappears briefly on Ice Cream and Sunscreen, the song that perhaps best encapsulates this record’s balance of rose-tinted reflection and harsh truths. Nuggets such as these form part of a patchwork quilt, with the band using this album to explore their continued ascent through adulthood and the strain that places on their anarchist political beliefs, DIY ethic and their shared view of the world around them as somewhere that romance can still blossom amid the shitstorm.
The relationships here are beset by obstacles thrown up by work, academia and, on St. Paul’s, institutionalised pressure to bow to a heteronormativeworldview, but Martha kick back at that with every ounce of effort they have. These stories are carried aloft by melodies that are at turns joyful, warm and all-encompassing, giving ‘Blisters…’ a universal quality that shouldn’t be underestimated. Few emotions are better articulated outside of the confines of a pop song.
With each member sharing vocal duties, Martha’s ability to sling four-part harmonies into the mix, juggle viewpoints and back one another up continues to be an ace up their sleeve, with ‘Blisters…’ proving every bit as satisfying on a technical level as it its on a thematic one. There is great care and attention displayed in each breakneck chord change or soaring refrain - notably the Trust Fund-assisted Chekhov’s Hangnail - just as the verbose lyric sheet is part socio-economic deconstruction, part love story and part history lesson. The next time someone tells you that pop music’s not worth the effort, send them this way.
Martha Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows:
Thu July 14 2016 - DURHAM Arlington House
Sun July 17 2016 - GLASGOW Audio
Fri July 22 2016 - LONDON Tufnell Park Dome
Sat July 23 2016 - BRISTOL Exchange
Wed July 27 2016 - DURHAM Empty Shop
Fri August 05 2016 - DERBY Hairy Dog
Sat August 06 2016 - BRIGHTON West Hill Hall
Tue August 09 2016 - ALSAGER Ethical Artisans
Wed August 10 2016 - HARROGATE Major Toms
Thu August 11 2016 - KINGSTON Hippodrome
Fri August 12 2016 - OXFORD East Oxford Community Centre
Sat August 13 2016 - NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE Cluny 2
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