The Pigeon Detectives Wait For Me by: Tom Perry Mon:06-Aug-07 Label: Dance To The Radio Year: 2007 WB rating 45 out of 100

When you cut through all the hyperbole, there are two kinds of albums you’ll ever come across. There’s those albums that create a new sound or a new musical direction… and in some way ‘surprise’ their listener.

And then there’s those albums that are a copy or an extension of something you’ve already heard. They work with a formula. That formula may be their own, whatever’s popular at the time, or one that’s worked for them over a number of albums.

The Pigeon Detectives’ Wait For Me is the latter type of album. And frankly – it’s boring.

If you’ve listened to the Kaiser Chiefs, Hard-Fi, Razorlight, Arctic Monkeys, Franz Ferdinand et al – then you’ve heard Wait For Me before. Except most of those were a whole heap better.

Wait for me is the Pigeon Detectives’ debut LP, having developed a strong following in the UK thanks to supports of some of the aforementioned bands, along with strong BBC Radio 1 airplay.

And that Radio 1 tag should be a clear word of warning. In the UK – Radio 1 plays exactly what the kids wanna hear. And the Pigeon Detectives’ sound will fit that bill nicely, but if you’re interested in hearing something new – this sure as hell isn’t for you.

Musically, Wait For Me is full of simple quick guitar hooks, speedy drumming, and agro punk-styled backing vocals. It’s easily digestible – and with a quick pace that doesn’t slow down across any of the twelve songs.

Openers and singles ‘Romantic type’ and ‘I found out’ define Wait For Me perfectly. These are textbook examples of mid-to-late-2000s British rock-by-numbers tunes. They’re poppy, punk-influenced tunes about boys confused by girls. ‘I found out’ even features the obligatory second last chorus “put-down-the-instruments-and-clap-with-the-crowd” session.

Most album reviews from this point would feature a track-by-track break down of where this album takes you, or at the very least, highlight a few tracks that stand out. But frankly – there’s very little point in going down that path here. Because each track on Wait For Me honestly sounds the same. Every one of these 3 minute ditties is a stock-standard pop-punk tune with a bunch of brash English boys getting together and singing about picking up birds and getting agro. Ninth tune ‘You better not look my way’ even manages to combine the girls/fights combo into one song.

The only oddity or potential unique point on this album comes at the end of fourth tune ‘Caught In Your Trap’ – which finishes with an weirdly placed bluesgrass/acoustic few bars of the previous 3 minute song. But even this sounds contrived. Call me cynical, but the immediate impression that I get from this little addition is that the Pigeon Detectives wanted to give a few bars of slow blues effort to show that they have a certain level of depth. Hmmm. All it says to me is that they know that an acoustic guitar in hand is a fantastic way to pick up.

With all those negatives said, it’s important to make clear that this is still a very well-produced record. The aim was clearly to channel the sound of the Pigeon Detectives lads playing to a packed-out Leeds club, and that comes across perfectly. And for those fans who have packed out these shows – the album will satisfy to a tee.

The reality is though, that this is textbook stuff designed for fifteen year olds. No doubt there’ll be plenty who’ll love this stuff, but frankly – I just think it’s bloody average. It’s a carbon copy of what you’ve probably heard plenty of already. The Living End, for example, were packing out Australian pubs playing this sort of stuff about 10 years ago – but with much more style and innovation.