Kent indie/alt rockers Indoor Pets return with a second album – and they’re in a darker, heavier, but no less humourous, mood than ever.
Release Date: 10th May 2024
Label: Alcopop! Records
Formats: CD / Vinyl / Digital
It’s been a while since we’ve heard from Kent indie/alt-rock quartet Indoor Pets. The band – Jamie Glass (vocals), James Simpson (guitar), Rob Simpson (drums) and Oliver Nunn (bass) surged onto the scene back in 2015 when their first two EPs, 001 and Luge Lessons and their incendiary live performances started to attract attention. Since then, they’ve toured with the likes of Weezer, Ash, The Futureheads and Razorlight and their 2019 debut album, Be Content drew acclaim in all the right places.
Sad to say, the pandemic and lockdown hit Indoor Pets hard – by their own admission, they felt they’d reached a state of burnout and they fell into the hiatus from which they now, at long last, have burst. And, with Pathetic Apethetic, their new album, ‘burst’ is exactly the right word; Pathetic Apathetic is a ball of pure energy, a glorious amalgam of grunge, punk and Sabbath-like heavy metal that can’t fail to shake away any remaining post-lockdown cobwebs and propel Indoor Pets back into that sector of hyperspace that they regard as ‘home.’
Vocalist Jamie Glass takes up the story: “In the five years since our debut album, we’ve faced personal and collective hurdles that made the concept of releasing new music feel like an unclimbable mountain. To be here, now, announcing a new record with the legends at Alcopop!… we are eternally grateful. For us, Pathetic Apathetic is a complete liberation from our preconceived notions of what success looks like for a small UK guitar band in 2024. We four imperfect humans have made something powerful and meaningful to us, and we can’t wait to share it with those who have the time and passion to listen.”
There’s no doubting – Pathetic Apathetic marks a departure from what we may already recognize as the Indoor Pets sound. Inspired by the 1990s grunge of bands like The Smashing Pumpkins, Dinosaur Jnr and Nine Inch Nails, it’s darker and it’s significantly heavier that any previous product but, happily, the eclecticism is still there, as is that endearing propensity to lighten the tone of the band’s lyrics with wry observation and – occasionally dodgy – humour.
It’s the full-on assault of lead single, London (Love to Hate) that gets Pathetic Apathetic off to a blistering start. Using a recording of an Underground train leaving a station as the song’s intro is a nifty idea; there are vocal harmonies and some tasty guitar licks tucked inside the tight, grungy cacophony and there’s a really fresh feel to the production, and I love how one of the band (James, I’m assuming…) references Ringo’s comment form The Beatles’ Helter Skelter when he shouts: “I HAVE got blisters on my fingers!” at the end of the song.
Once again, we’ll consult Jamie for the story behind London (Love To Hate): “It’s about my frustration with struggling to make ends meet while surviving in the capital. London is about watching the bills pile up and swell whilst the hourly-pay jobs needed as a musician wither with atrophy. Living in one of the most exciting music hubs in the world and observing everybody and their dog take a pay-rise, book a holiday and buy property off the back of the starry-eyed artists that litter the streets. Being thankful that there is a roof over my head for another month yet ashamed of the Universal Credit sum falling in my wallet, knowing there are so many in the city that deserve it more. The city is no longer a home for the working class. And as those people leave in their droves, with them leaves the ingenuity and empathy that they provided.”
That’s a bittersweet summary, with a lot of frustration, regret and guilt expressed alongside reflections of some of the good things that our capital city has to offer, and all of those sentiments come across clearly – and very loudly – in London (Love To Hate).
The ferocity of London… is maintained for Dopamine Girls, the latest single to be extracted from the album. The mood of the song switches, alarmingly and unpredictably, between full-bore heavy riffage and (comparatively) quiet contemplation and it’s just about possible to detect the framework of a joyful pop song hidden somewhere in the mix.
The refusal to compromise, or to leave any prisoners standing is an enduring characteristic of Pathetic Apathetic and, nowhere is this characteristic more evident that in the album’s title track, as lyrics like “For all interests and purposes, you are lying scum – public ally, classic nice guy, secret sexism” and “Pathetic, protect your interests, your online protests aren’t fooling anyone; pathetic, you’re a hypocrite, using politics to cash in on the young” ably demonstrate. It’s full of energy, full of venom and full of glory – and I wonder just to WHOM those lyrics refer; there are soooo many suitable candidates…
Funk gets a brief look-in on the interesting, somewhat unsettling, Stink Eye (My Love Is Irrational) as Oliver’s choppy bass lines alternate with Jamie’s agonized punk screams, all of which makes the singalong Sadness is a Phase sound almost doo-wop-ish by comparison. It’s a song that is, I suspect, destined to become a ‘live’ favourite and, with lines like “I’ve never been mistaken for someone with a use,” it’s another great example of that cheeky Indoor Pets humour.
Indoor Pets have a remarkable talent for taking a classically-structured pop song and injecting it with megajoules of energy, and that’s certainly the approach they have taken to the joyous, pumped-up love song, Recklessly and, perhaps even more so, to produce the in-your-face power pop of Fidget Panic Restless Static. It’s tight as a drum and peppered with some great guitar licks from James which almost, but not quite, take the attention away from lyrics as dark as: “Overdose, side-by-side, take the brown, I’ll take the white. It’s beautiful to watch you roll your eyes back inside your head.”
Listeners looking for a song that flits just about everywhere might just find they’re looking for in Litmus Paper, a song that melds gritty grunge to Sex Pistols prototype punk and rounds off the potion with a splash of pastoral psychedelia – and all in the space of just 3:27. It is – perhaps – the least predictable song on the album and, as a consequence, might just turn out to be the album’s most enduring and rewarding listen.
And, speaking of unpredictability, the use of synthesizer and vocoder harmony vocals for the tuneful You’re a Spinal Tap is right out of the left-field. It’s unlike anything else on the album – not a guitar in sight, and Rob’s drums, frenzied as a tornado elsewhere, are thoroughly restrained. And it’s great fun! But that’s an interlude that doesn’t last and it’s back to Black Sabbath-style heavy riffage for Self Isolate, a song that distills the band’s lockdown ordeal into four concise verses and there’s no doubt that lyrics like: “Our future plans they’ve turned to dust, when social skills begin to rust. Our time cannot be killed enough, humanity has lost its human touch” hit the nail squarely on the head.
And to close: how about a dose of glam rock?
The opening couplet to closing track Beta Test Me: “It’s not easy being mean, it’s not easy being great – so much effort to keep them keen, when it’s just as fun to master – “ (finish it yourself…) had me spluttering coffee all over my computer keyboard. And as for the song – it’s the album’s foot-tapper and, I confidently predict, another ‘live’ favourite in the making.
But don’t take my word for it. Indoor Pets will be taking Pathetic Apathetic on the road in late May and you’ll be able to hear for yourselves what all the fuss is about. Scheduled dates so far are:
- 21st May: McChuills, Glasgow
- 22nd May: Zerox, Newcastle
- 23rd May: Academy 3, Manchester
- 26th May: Sydney & Matilda, Sheffield
- 27th May: Oporto, Leeds
- 28th May: Bodega, Nottingahm
- 29th May: Louisiana, Bristol
- 30th May: The Garage, Highbury, London
We also have it on good authority that Indoor Pets will be around during this year’s 2000Trees Festival at Upcote Farm, Cheltenham, on 10th-13th July!
Watch the official video to London (Love To Hate) – the album’s lead single – here:
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