Martha – Blisters In The Pit Of My Heart

Martha is a four piece indie band from the oddly named village of Pity Me in the north east of the UK, Blisters In The Pit Of My Heart is their sophomore album, it follows hard on the heels of their acclaimed 2014 debut, Courting Strong. They have retained MJ, from acclaimed Yorkshire psyche band Hookworms, to produce the album, presumably this is an “if isn’t broken don’t fix it” move as he did such a sterling job on their debut album. All four members of this quartet share the vocal and songwriting duties, this means that no two songs are the same and Blisters In The Pit Of My Heart never once gets repetitive, it constantly keeps you guessing what direction it’ll head off in next. 

Blisters In The Pit Of My Heart opens with the frantic, and all too brief, Christine, the tempo rarely relents from this point, even when it does you know that it’ll only be a brief wait before it picks back up again. Martha make a frenetic noise that comes across as a hybrid of punk attitude and indie style, but all done with a sunny pop sensibility. They certainly know how to put a catchy tune together, their songs feature slightly discordant harmonies that are pleasing to the ear and on some of the vocal duties the north east accent is detectable, which for me only adds to their charm. I think that’s the right description for this release, charming, for all it’s frantic guitar riffs it maintains a summery disposition throughout, you can’t help having a smile on your face when listening to Blisters In The Pit Of My Heart.

They owe a heavy debt to indie bands from the late 80’s and 90’s, you can hear echoes of the likes of Lush and The Arctic Monkeys finest moments on this release, that’s not to say they are recreating the past, Martha are a band that wear their hearts, and their influences, on their collective sleeves. The end result is that his is a triumphant and upbeat album with smart and witty lyrics that deserves to be part of your summer playlist. Weirdly my download of Blisters In The Pit Of My Heart came with a mysterious bonus track by a band called The Marketts, a piece of odd go-go sixties strangeness that is akin to The Mummies on an acid trip, did anyone else get this attached to their copy or am I just lucky?

Blisters In The Pit Of Your Heart is released by Fortuna Pop in the UK and  Dirtnap Records in the USA, it can be ordered on download, or on black, or limited edition splatter vinyl, from the usual outlets