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Pink Spiders Sweat It Out Review by Gary Hill Punk rock, old school rock and roll and good old pop music are blended together to form the music that is Pink Spiders. You can’t argue with the catchy modes that make up this album. It’s just plain fun. There’s no sense of mediocrity or monotony here. They change it up from song to song and always seem to excel at creating great pop rock music. There’s a universal texture to this and is sure to please most listeners. These guys aren’t the most revolutionary band out there, but they do what they do quite well. While it feels familiar it’s hard to pin it down to one band or another, let alone one song or another. This review is available in book format (hardcover and paperback) in Music Street Journal: 2009 Volume 1 at lulu.com/strangesound.

Track by Track Review

Busy Signals A dramatic introduction gives way to a killer rock number that’s quite catchy. There’s a bit of a punk edge, but also a more retro sound. It’s a strong cut with a cool keyboard element and a great way to start off the album in style.

Gimme Chemicals They bring a slower glam rock kind of texture to this. In a way this reminds me a bit of Sweet or some of the other glam bands like that. This is a bit more stripped down and perhaps not as catchy. It’s still a cool tune.

Seventeen Candles Piano leads it off here and this feels like something from Jellyfish as the voice joins. The bouncy hard rock sound here is very much in that vein. This is another energetic number that’s very catchy.

Falling With Every Step A far mellower motif leads this off, but after the intro they launch into a killer hard rock riff that’s very much glam rock. I like this one a lot. It’s catchy and meaty at the same time. They include a couple interesting interludes on this to change things up a little. The multi-layer vocal arrangement on this is cool and so is the Aerosmith-like jam later in the cut.

Truth Or Dare This one feels like some 1980’s rocker when it launches out. The motif continues and I’m actually reminded of the old band The A’s when they move into the vocal sections. This is another great tune on a disc that has no weak material. The arrangement gets pretty involved and intense on this track.

Don't Wait For Me An acoustic ballad approach feels like Green Day here. They bring this up with additional layers of sound after a time and then shift it out towards harder rocking territory while keeping it slow and melodic. Perhaps this more powered up segment feels closer to something from Poison. This gets quite involved but drops back to a more intense telling of the ballad approach before they bring in the final burst of oomph.

Stranglehold No, not a cover of the Ted Nugent song, this is a powerhouse rocker. It’s definitely another that makes me think of The A’s, but also Jellyfish.

Settling For You They start this with a stripped down, but energized motif. It moves out into a fast paced jam and really bounces along. It’s a lot of fun. There’s definitely a punk vibe to this, but it reminds me perhaps the most of Squeeze. There’s an old school rock and roll element here, too.

Maria I definitely hear Squeeze on this one, too. There’s an old school texture here, but plenty of punk rock, too. It’s another fun rocker on a disc that’s full of them.

Sleeping On The Floor This is perhaps more purely punk in nature, but with the lighter hearted side of punk. It’s energized and about sleeping on the floor after “swimming in tequila.” There’s a cool spoken word section on this that shows off the temporary mental defects caused by alcohol consumption.

Trust No One Here’s another catchy rocker. This one is perhaps more emo than some of the other music here and doesn’t stand quite as tall as the rest.

Here Comes Trouble Now this is more like it. A stripped down rock and roll jam creates the power-pop motifs here. I can hear this as sort of Cheap Trick goes emo. The chorus is very much in keeping with Trick. This is a highlight of the disc.

Mrs. Ruston They close it off with a more pure pop rock jam that again calls to mind Jellyfish quite a bit. There are some odd little excursions here and there that are rather Beatles-like – and that includes the outro.

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