Can a band known for audio excess successfully strip back their sound without losing what made them so endearing in the first place? That’s the question that noted noisemongers A Place To Bury Strangers (APTBS) try to answer with their compelling and absolutely arresting fifth album. Pinned is the result of a band successfully coming out of a mid-career transition period that started with their solid yet uneven Transfixiation. That record found the band willing to experiment, and Pinned expands on this wonderfully. While there are still some fantastic short and boisterous noisy numbers (“Execution”, “”Look Me In the Eye”, and “Attitude”), this record feels like the most traditional album of the group’s catalog thus far. When the band turns their knobs below 11, can they still captivate?
The answer, thankfully, is an emphatic yes. Pinned is as close as we may ever get to APTBS waxing nostalgic and embracing their influences, but the group’s goth-tinged, industrialized post-punk is quite addicting. Newcomer Lia Simone Braswell’s kit work is continuously pulsing like Poe’s Tell-Tale Heart, and her occasional vocal injections give new life to the songs; her voice meshes quite well with Oliver Ackermann’s distant baritone; This dual vocal approach lends a haunted essence to the music – “Never Coming Back” with its pulsing rhythm section builds the sonic suspense like a Grand Guignol chiller. “There’s Only One of Us” somehow mixes grunge, twee indie pop, and the sounds of an Old West saloon to great effect. “Frustrated Operator” and “Look Me In The Eye” feature the types of bass-lines that could be the soundtrack to a 1950s heist getaway scene.
This makes it seem like the album is haphazard, and while each song embraces a unique angle, it’s all brought together by head-bobbing, throbbing post-punk energy. APTBS’ (relatively, of course) stripped-down emphasis on groove and melody is an impressive gamble. It proves that band can still surprise this long into their career without sacrificing their nuanced take on noise rock. Not every hook hits immediately, but it’s a record that certainly rewards careful attention and one that pins itself to your brain deeper than first impressions normally do. APTBS have reappeared stronger and more vibrant than ever before.
