Sheer Mag feel a love for the past on debut LP

Sheer Mag

"Need to Feel Your Love"

Release date: 14 July 2017

6.5/10

07 July 2017, 09:30 | Written by Nathan Westley

(Albums)

(Sheer Mag)

In a time of quick fire, blink and you'll miss them careers where instant hype caused by the release of one song has become the norm, it feels unusual when a band takes as slow an approach as Sheer Mag. After releasing three EPs over the course of three years, the Philadelphias have only now reached the point of being ready to unleash an album into the wild.

Driping with Riot Grrl angst, Need To Feel Your Love kicks off with 70s riff-o-rama "Meet me in the Street", but fierceness isn’t always at the front of their music. While the attitude might be current, the music is fundamentally retro in its approach from the start, and it’s not something that changes as the album progresses. The title track for example embeds lightly funky guitar chops within its Americana-cherishing rock, at times verging on a beefed-up Fleetwood Mac.

Elsewhere, "Just Can’t Get Enough" is a collision of hardcore punk attitude, pop hooks and straight up 70s rock with a natural inclination to embrace the idea of a guitar solo break, and "Turn It Up", with its head-banging riffs, leans towards 80s hair metal but doesn’t swerve far enough from the template to feel overly vital.

Ultimately Need To Feel Your Love is an unashamedly retro flavoured affair, but it's one that’s worth tasting.