PINS – Girls Like Us
01. It’s On
02. Girls Like Us
03. Mad For You
04. Get With Me
05. Play With Fire
06. I Want It All
07. Waiting For The End
08. Howlin’
09. Lost Lost Lost
10. Velvet Morning
11. Stay True
12. To You
13. The Darkest Day
Seriously, what happened to girl power? Not the fluffy-puffy pop version of the SPICE GIRLS. But the cool female heroes like Patti Smith or Siouxsie Sioux. Girls who had power, sex appeal and a certain attitude. It’s 2013 and we still have Miley Cyrus twerking, Rihanna who loves to get beat up and various other exemplars of that version. Self-expression got mistaken with Self-determination. Can somebody please turn the ship around? We need more cool women in music, tough girls, rebellious ladies. PINS might be such a type of young females. And their debut longplayer Girls Like Us is the right example of how girl power can be done in the year 2013.
Girls Like Us celebrates the cool post-punk sound of the late 70s with these ladies celebrating their own coolness to a maximum. But it’s not a bad thing since it fits to the cool sound. The four-piece from Manchester recalls the roughness of JOY DIVISION or SIOUXIE AND THE BANSHEES. Catchy and energetic lo-fi songs who have no problem with their inner imperfection. From the spheric opener It’s On to the pumping title track and rough rocking tunes like Get With Me or Lost Lost Lost – PINS combine cool attitude with a certain overcooled sex appeal. You can clearly get that impression from a lascivious song like I Want It All.
But in the end PINS‘ love for retro-rock has its biggest strength in the fact that there’s been a clear lack of such music in the past years. Because basically the band recycles music from 25 years ago. Don’t get us wrong, they’re doing a great job but in the end you might also take the chance to rather discover the original artists from that era. Girls Like Us is a solid debut that is full of spirit and cool songs and we sincerely hope these women live their attitude and are not playing it. Get ready to unleash the inner riot girl in you, spice up your life and let PINS become a part of it.
—