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Pills by Post - Kind Words (7" Single)
Emails bring joy!
Well, sometimes they do. Forget the requests for "bank account details" and pills that “guarantee to help satisfy your lover(s) wildest desires” In my case, I am more than sated when a band or musician sends me something that pricks up my ears and doesn’t offer to prick up anything else; maybe music is my little blue pill.
On this particular day, I received an email from a Simon Rivers asking me to review his new solo project, Pills by Post. Some of you may know him as the front man of The Bitter Springs; though I have to admit, I had heard of TBS, I can’t say I had heard a track so I wasn’t prepared for the sugar coated melodies that encased a bitter pill that was so easy to swallow. Pass me my water…
 “Kind Words” The first track on this single is a fresh swathe of acerbic wit, a highly accomplished pop vignette. The track starts with a very wobbly synth and an electronic drum beat whilst another synth plays high notes to stunning atmospheric perfection. Lyrically and vocally Mr Rivers reminds me of a cross between Piano Magic’s Glen Johnson and The Auteurs’ Luke Haines . If you are familiar with Johnson's and Haines’ vocal observations and sideswipes, you will find the vocals on this song comforting; the equivalent of a frustrated rant of daily confusions at the world that surrounds you. Any song that mentions “Pat Jennings”, “shitty environments” and has a chorus that features the refrain, “I ain’t got a kind word for anyone” deserves a very cheeky smile at the sort of thoughts that you keep to yourself on a train journey whilst on the way to a “shitty” day at work whilst staring unhappily at your fellow passengers.” A melancholic pop song for aesthetically discerning people.
“Sinking Boat” takes the acoustic ballad to genius levels of grandiose song writing, “Look behind the anger of these feelings unresolved”. This is exactly what Simon Rivers has done with this record. Many patterns of thought come and go, some good, some bad, but all the while it all seems so emotionally cathartic. This is what selling your soul to music means. Simon Rivers takes the guitar and uses his voice to record the sentiments that harbour the deepest and most nascent feelings of frustration and desire in the human psyche and the results are some kind of musical therapy that puts an arm around the listener and says, “It’s alright, I understand.”
I think this music should actually be available on the National Health Service. Anything that leaves me nodding and smiling in salubrious agreement at the absurdity of it all in a three minute pop song, is something that must be taken daily. Do yourselves a favour and get a prescription from Simon Rivers and ask for some Pills By Post - Take three times daily and feel the aural calming chemicals.
9/10
http://www.pillsbypost.com
Download the single here!
Review by Nicky.
Special thanks go out to Tim I.
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