Pears – Green Star

This is Pears second album for Fat Wreck Chords and the follow up to 2015’s Go To Prison. This is not the kind of fayre we have come to associate with Fat Wreck Chords, this is a brutal sixteen track assault of old school hardcore, all the elements you’d expect are present and correct. The stop start rhythms, the controlled chaos, the frantic drumming and the snarled vocals are all very much in evidence on Green Star. The only respite from the continuous savage pummelling are the incongruous instrumental piano breaks Dizzy Is Drunk and Jump The Fuckin’ Ship, which act as all too brief buffers of tranquillity.

The problem for me, not just with Pears but with a lot of hardcore bands, is that on record the songs become indistinguishable from one another, were it not for the piano breaks this could be one very long song or sixty very short songs. Don’t get me wrong, I love watching hardcore bands live, to me that’s it natural home and where it’s energy and intensity work best, if I were to see Pears live you would probably see a very different review but on record this just doesn’t work for me.

If you’re a fan of the relentless brutal side of punk this will be very much your cup of tea and it’s worth noting that this is an album that divides opinion, a brief internet search reveals reviews of this album that vary from “truly extraordinary” (Punk News) to “diarrhea pie” (Next Punk). This is the nature of punk music, it should provoke strong reactions, the music we love is not there to provide a forgettable background soundtrack to a polite dinner party, it’s there to demand, provoke and inspire and Pears certainly do this.

Depending on your point of view this will be one of the best or one of the worst punk albums of the year, whilst Green Star is not something I would choose to listen to I can appreciate Pears commitment and no compromise attitude to music.