Review Summary: One of the UK DIY scene's best hopes fulfil their promises
There’s a moment in the song “Eleven”, on the split EP Plaids released with
Football, Etc. last year, where frontman Joe Cee sings, amongst serrated guitars, the couplet “this precarious connection/this assumption of goodwill”. Plaids are a band who write songs about personal politics as well as songs about humanity’s place within the universe. They’re also a DIY band who operate from an ex-fruit and veg warehouse in Nottingham.
Plaids have been around for nearly two years now, and in that time released enough songs to fill two albums, all while touring relentlessly and putting on shows themselves in their JT Soar base. Plaids clearly put everything into what they do, and it shows with their debut self-titled album. Twenty-six minutes of twisting guitar lines, emotional energy and complex lyrics.
Plaids’ have always made their obsession with Dischord Records bands obvious (
Embrace is a clear touchstone), but their debut album hints at greater ambition. The aggressive guitar riff that opens “Twenty Six” borrows from
At The Drive-In, while the entire record draws from similar aesthetics to plenty of 90s dream pop and space rock bands. The first side attacks you with its pure energy while “Twenty Four” screeches out the beginning of the second side as things get darker, the song beginning with the harshest guitar tone on the album, while “Thirty” closes the album with the line “it could ignite a fire from within”.
The entire concept of Plaids draws from space, inspired by Carl Sagan’s TV series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage. Through this, Plaids are able to demonstrate their lofty ambitions (through their wide musical palette and abstract lyrics) while still keeping strongly to their DIY essence. The fact that their still only naming their songs with (chronological) numbers shows they wish to strike their own path, while still being part of the core DIY network running strong in the UK right now.
Plaids’ debut album is certainly a strong offering that may threaten to break out into the wider scene with its slightly more accessible sound, while still keeping to the integrity the band always offered, with its rough guitar tones and frantic drums and vocals. Whatever the case is, Plaids are still a band people should be glad to have around, and are still one of the best in the scene.
