Recruiting poster for the Czechoslovak Recruiting Office by Vojtech Preissig, 1918
Little Death by Pete & the Pirates hasn't received an official release in the US, so I didn't put it in my Best of 2008 list. I'd been waiting to see if it would come out over here, but I eventually just downloaded it from Amazon. The first album by the Reading-based band, Little Death is British pop in the tradition of early XTC, which is probably why they keep getting compared to Franz Ferdinand. The band's vocalist Tom Sanders had a similar-sounding solo project called Tap Tap that got some attention over here - the Lanzaframe album, released on Catbird Records, got some good reviews and blog mentions and was one of my favorite albums of 2006. But Pete & the Pirates have released a great record that has gotten little attention outside the UK as far as I can tell.
Tom Sanders has that voice that was popular a couple years ago - the Clap-Your-Hands-Wolf-Parade croak-yelp that the kids were so into. If you like that kind of singing, that will probably be the most immediate appeal to be found in Little Death. Well, that and the jerky new-wave guitar leads. But the album has more treats that reveal themselves as you listen - the bouncy hand-claps of "Come On Feet", the call-and-response vocals in "Dry Wings", and the buzzing solo that comes out of nowhere in "Bears" are all pleasant surprises. I'll admit that Tom Sanders' lyrics are hit-and-miss at best - the song "Dry Wings" starts with the lyric "Time for bed/Find a girl and go to bed" - but the subject matter matches the youthful energy of the songs, and the arrangements are surprisingly mature and well-though-out by comparison. Pete & the Pirates are playing SXSW this year, so check them out if you happen to be in Austin. Maybe they'll get some of the attention they deserve.
"Dry Wings" by Pete & the Pirates
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