Russell HughesDinosaur Pile-Up – Celebrity Mansions (Parlophone)
From their grunge roots at the late end of the 2000’s to their rock evolution through Eleven Eleven and the present day, Dinosaur Pile-Up have retained a unique entertaining element.
But they’ve never lost that underdog spirit. There’s no songs about being all cashed up, no songs about girls (unless you count them breaking your heart) and one of their singles is about being put down at every turn. And in that respect the grunge spirit is very much alive.
Dinosaur Pile-Up are also taking their album to road at small little constrained, sweaty venues and this is something that they should be loved even more for. Turns out you can take the band out of grunge but you can’t take grunge out of the band.
And if anyone wants to dispute the fact that this band can write heavy, guitar driven bangers needs to be directed to lead singles Thrash Metal Cassette and Back Foot. The former is a huge, album defining song that sets the tone straight away, while the decision to slot in the latter right after makes you question whether there really can be too much of a good thing.
This might feel like a more mainstream approach, but this isn’t the first band to take that path. And there’s more than a hint of the Foo Fighters’ early work when Matt Bigland gets all wonderfully worked up and intense on Pouring Gasoline.
After three independently released records, Parlophone made the most risk free decision in recent history and signed Dinosaur Pile-Up and then just let them do their natural thing. The result is their best album yet, and one of the candidates for record of the year.
These boys might earn their celebrity mansion after all. Stay tuned for more.