Sean Pinchin - Bad Things (2019)

Well, now that he's got our attention he's made his mind up to make good use of it. Monkey Brain is a guitar tour de force, a gritty mash of the history of roots guitar music torn down and built back up again. The title track is a grimy ode to our inner, more base impulses: "When life gets to me. My head starts to change. I give in to my Monkey Brain". On the swampy Charity Case, Sean pleads with his lover: "Why do you treat me like some charity case? It's not your business if I'm sober or straight"... we've all been there. Hard Luck is a 21st-century gospel dirge that has Sean's searing lead guitar crescendo with a one-note Neil Young-style squeal into it's signature riff with layered gospel harmonies pleading wordlessly over deep piano drones. Living In The Past eases us in with Sean's falsetto before the album's engine room Adam Warner (drums) & Mark McIntyre (bass) launch into its signature groove. Sean's guitar weaves in and out and Emma-Lee's backing vocals push the whole thing over the top. The album takes a turn with Goin' Hobo's junk-yard percussion and tongue-in-cheek lyrics about being sick of the grind and packing it all in for the hobo life cowritten with Juno winner Steve Strongman. The album closes with the duo of Monsters, an acoustic stomper keeping with the theme of fighting one's own demons and Get Burned, yet more evidence of Sean's guitar prowess, pivoting effortlessly between clean sinewy playing and ultra-dirty riff-mongering. Throughout, Sean delivers stories of personal struggle and triumph after living with depression for many years. Realizing that his grief could be put to constructive use, he began writing about everything that caused him pain, fear and heartache. Monkey Brain is his blues and he comes by it honestly.