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Martha

Please Don't Take Me Back

Written by: KRS on 26/12/2022 19:57:52

For those ten years that Martha has been a band, they haven’t gone down on quality in the music that they’ve released. For those of you who haven’t stumbled upon Martha, they are a band from a little suburb of Durham, called Pity Me. Now ten years, three studio-length albums later, and a few split EPs with different artists, Martha brings us “Please Don’t Take Me Back”, and it doesn’t let you down throughout the 35 minutes and 11 tracks on the record.

Opening the record, “Beat, Perpetual” starts as an upbeat song with some bright guitar riffs opening the song alongside power pop singing, and a catchy hook that will have you singing along from the first listen. The title track is probably the most identifiable song from the record, and unlike “Hope Gets Harder”, it doesn’t hit so hard during the first verses, but as soon as we find our way to the chorus we are flooded. Don’t be misunderstood by that part, it’s very positive with a wave of heavy pop-punk-infused guitar that could have resembled a slower-tempo song from PUP's early days.

Lyrics-wise, Martha keeps it real with reflection “Take me back to the old days / No wait, don't do that / I was really fucking sad / The old days were bad”. We all might long for the past, but do we really when we think about it? Martha certainly has thought about it and lays it on the table on this track.

“Baby, Does Your Heart Sink” is another BOP from that album, and the heavy guitar riffs at the beginning of the track shouldn’t come across as simple. No no, the classic rock-inspired guitar riffs and rapid drumming in this song deliver a banger of a break-up song that oozes confidence in the songwriting that the band continually brings to the table throughout the record.

“Take Me Back To The Old Days (Reprise)” is a nice breather before we are thrown into the last three tracks on the record. Martha shows off their talent by playing the chorus of “Please Don’t Take Me Back” on the piano while pulling at some heartstrings along the way. “I Didn’t Come Here To Surrender” takes a drastic change and puts a lot of vulnerability on the line: ”Now nothing's going right at all / and I can't see the light / although I try in vain / I think of you in the New York rain”, brought together with guitar riffs that could remind the best of us of early 80s rock, think Cheap Trick. They put a lot more on the line with the final song on the record “You Can’t Have a Good Time All of the Time”, the folksy acoustic guitar sound is accompanied by a few synth vibes. They keep it simple with Naomi Griffin's calm vocals, yet towards the end of the song she goes for rougher vocals with commentary about climate disaster is, in fact, real, for those of you wondering.

Martha makes indie punk look effortless, clean, and inspiring track by track, making this one of Martha’s best releases to date. Finding a balance between personal and political lyrics can be difficult, but as Martha has been practicing this art for more than a decade, it’s no wonder that they make each song sound better with the pop-punk foundation that we all have come to love the most about this band overall. And if this record isn’t on your best-of list for 2022, you haven’t paid enough attention to this band and now is your chance.

Download: "Baby Does Your Heart Sink"; "Beat, Perpetual"; Please Don’t Take Me Back
For the fans of: P.S. Eliot, Lemuria, Slowly Slowly, PUP
Listen: Facebook

Release date 28. 10. 2022
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