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Sheer Mag Need To Feel Your Love Static Shock

14.07.17

Sheer Mag waste no time thrusting you into the fast-paced world of Need to Feel Your Love. Protest jam Meet Me in the Street opens the album with bold confidence, with the fist-in-the-air energy of a rock ’n’ roll riff and lyrics inspired by the USA’s post-inauguration chaos, introducing a riotous spirit that fuels the whole album.

Much like Sheer Mag’s trilogy of EPs, Need to Feel Your Love makes no secret that the Philadelphia band are proud connoisseurs of classic 70s rock. And yet while the music here is nostalgic, with guitar riffs bringing to mind the Jukebox-friendly material of Thin Lizzy and The Clash’s London Calling era, Sheer Mag aren’t necessarily impersonating the rock canon. With Tina Halladay’s lyrics often taking centre stage, Sheer Mag seem to have found their own original angle on the genre, creating a varied record that is positively political.

They slam the ultimatum on the table on Expect the Bayonet: “If you don’t give us the ballot/ expect the bayonet”, a timely and welcome comment on the silencing of marginalised voices in society by those in power. Instant classics Just Can’t Get Enough and Pure Desire carry a simple message of romantic ecstasy – the former, a classic rock ballad and the latter, an indie-funk summer tune. But the real MVP track is Suffer Me featuring tickled electric guitars that somehow meld a Southern twang with an almost East African melodic lift, a simple foot drum beat and some of Halladay’s most dynamic vocals.

Sheer Mag don’t shy away from difficult conversations about social change. They also don’t attempt to obscure and manipulate the sounds of the musicians that have influenced them along the way. And as a result of this combination, Need to Feel Your Love is a blatant and irresistible ode to the past, the present and – importantly – the future.