Martha - Please Don't Take Me Back LP

Durham (UK) indiepop-punks Martha return with their fourth album, and it might just be their best one yet. With their endlessly radiant hooks dialed up to the maximum setting, paired with another heart-rending and relatable lyric sheet that reflects on the universal scars of the pandemic years, Please Don’t Take Me Back is the work of a band in the form of their life. It’s also an instant classic—one that’s both smartly prescient and warmly addictive. Recorded at Nottingham’s JT Soar by “Bad” Phil Booth (The Cool Greenhouse, Rattle, Grey Hairs), Please Don’t Take Me Back is a timely collection of deliciously catchy pop songs about “resisting the feeling that the good days are behind us.” Two things set these songs apart: firstly, the sense of resolution the band provide by working through these fears to find what positivity they can—making this the go-to record for any ongoing existential crisis in 2022. Secondly, there’s the effortless brilliance which ensures every melody cements itself to the memory from the very first listen to the album closer. One will hear echoes of The Housemartins, The Weakerthans, Cheap Trick and Heavenly in their sound, but ultimately it sounds like Martha found a way to turn their strongest features all the way to eleven. What better way to process the aftermath of the past two years?