Berries - Berries (Xtra Mile Recordings) 
Release Date: 18th October 2024
The formidable trio that is Berries have a big, fat new album that is so powerful, so damn good that they didn't even need to think up an imaginative name for it. So they called it 'Berries' and we're all going to just have to get along with that fact, OK? OK, good. The album gets going with 'Barricade' and when I say 'gets going' I mean at 100mph with thumping drums and a guitar vs bass battle that feels like grunge soundtracked fencing (I'm copywriting that, by the way, just in case the Olympic Committee are reading). 'Creature' finds the three piece at their angular best like a blend of Franz Ferdinand and Dutch Uncles but with menace in mind.
On 'Blurry Shapes' there is vibe that fits somewhere between Reuben, Talking Heads and Kate Bush which is a space I could spend an awful lot of time in while recent single 'Watching Wax' chops and charges like a combination of of Biffy Clyro and System of a Down. Now, sure, I'm making a bunch of comparisons here but you have to understand that the genius of Berries is how they take all of these ingredients and come up with a sound that is truly theirs, truly unique and genuinely brilliant. Take 'Balance', for instance, an acoustic slow jam that has My Vitriol-esque vibes but the vocals of Holly Carter make it sound more like early Laura Marling or Ellie Goulding before she went all pop on us.
The energy and unpredictability is back on 'Jagged Routine' which charges and veers around unsteadily like a drunk trying to navigate a nightclub with a pint in hand. The duel between guitar and drums continues on 'This Space' which sounds like a sonic sparring match between a heavy weight boxer and a nimble mime artist. 'Narrow Tracks' is the most ballsy, all-out rock'n'roll track on the album with an impressive show of sheer force and penultimate song 'Control' is all tension, brooding and a sense of things about to kick off - an energy I can't get enough of in a song. The album finishes on 'Crumpled Clothes', a song that is almost impossible to dance to but equally impossible not to be bowled over by. This is supposed to be the difficult second album but from the evidence on this album Berries have smashed it out of the park and, dare I say, they've bettered their debut from two years ago. Superb.
More information: https://www.facebook.com/BerriesBand
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