Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
We lay a trail in the hope that someone comes along and gathers the signal and instruction we leave hanging in the ether so that it may be translated, so that we know in our heart our message has been heard.
Picking Up What You’re Putting Down is the understanding that we are more than our own shadows, we are the means of reception to others to have their thoughts interpreted, to send their voice onwards, and like a CB radio being used in the darkness of the home of a teenager in Britain during the 70s and 80s, the sounds we hear and notice are exotic and deeply engrained in a world once out of our reach.
That trail that leads reassuringly to The Buffalo Skinners is one dialled in squarely by a hand of an operator who is assured of the frequency they are aiming for. The deft fingers avoiding the static of the age, and the glory of the instant redemption when the pulse, strong, vibrant, fiercely groovy, that is when you know you have found the message you were searching intently for.
From the roots rock beginnings and acoustic brigade to full on electric surge, The Buffalo Skinners have wired into the musical portal and found the structure they can now call home, and it is one of thumping harmony and considered vocal opinion.
Across tracks such as the phenomenal Wrong Crowd, Sonny Song, Carve Yourself A Stone, Wear It On Your Sleeve, Double Blue Line, and the album title track Picking Up What You’re Putting Down, what was once a beautiful ensemble of music has picked up a signal from another realm, one where beauty is interchanged for tenacity, further engagement, and a fine sense of self progress and determination. As an album it is in effect a new beginning, one though that honours its past with abundance.
Nothing is impossible if you can see beyond the frequency that alludes you, and for a band caught up in the knowledge they live in distant lands, that sense of continuality and freedom to explore is paramount and heady; it is a motion of forward thinking and kicking pressure where it hurts.
A terrific album, a recording of genuine grasp of illumination.
The Buffalo Skinners release Picking Up What You’re Putting Down on Loose Chat Records on March 29th.
Ian D. Hall