Label: Astralwerks
Released: September 25, 2007
The latest project of New Zealand’s Nick Harte, Shocking Pinks’ self-titled album is actually songs collected from the two previous albums. It’s a rhythm-based indie rock affair whose ambling beats support yet don’t drive it’s layers of ambient noise and dream pop. The album has bits of Joy Division and pieces of My Bloody Valentine, giving it both a dark undercurrent and a good pop sense that grounds it despite its oddness. There are only a few outright dance tracks, yet the whole album is in a sense vaguely danceable. When they succeed, the songs are near perfect snippets of moods. When they fail, they are merely disorganized pop songs. Luckily, there is enough of the former to make this album worth hearing.
Rating: 7/10