The ability of two-piece bands to make a racket seemingly beyond their means has become a rock ‘n’ roll constant. PS I Love You have taken the idea a step further on ‘For Those Who Stay’, an unashamedly ambitious record complete with hazy jams, keyboard swirls and Paul Saulnier’s familiar nasal yowl.
Their third album shines a light on elements of the band’s sound that have long resisted being brought into the spotlight. While the expressive guitars of ‘Death Dreams’ highlight Sentimental Dishes or the echo-laden top end of Little Spoon, from their debut ‘Meet Me At The Muster Station’, were effective in small doses, here the duo have attempted to create something all-inclusive, where those characteristics are as important as the next self-deprecating swipe or yelped chorus.
It’s apparent from In My Mind’s opening wave of Johnny Marr-indebted guitars and rumbling keyboard lines that the look is one that PS I Love You can pull off. Saulnier’s vocals are a neat counterpoint, his fraught words an anchor for the more expressive instrumentation.
The duo are particularly effective on the wonderful Limestone Radio, which possesses an air of Pixies in its jagged verse and an addictive chorus, but elsewhere there’s a lack of control that leaves some great ideas lost in a soup of average ones.
The freak jam ending of Advice sends the song spinning away from its base, while For Those Who Stay is a good three minutes too long. Its spaced out denouement does in fact feel like it takes a light year to play itself out. Bad Brain Day, while seemingly light and airy, is another that meanders when it could have made its point and checked out.
There’s much to like about ‘For Those Who Stay’, not least PS I Love You’s willingness to chance their collective arm on a record that redefines what we might expect from them next time around. Not all of it works, but some of it delivers and hints at a future where they make a real statement.
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