Just two years after their reconfirmation with “Leave The Light On”, Pillow Queens have created a solid third album that does not hide their ambition to reach a wider audience. Thanks also to the production of Collin Pastore, the four Dublin musicians have in fact put together more full-bodied arrangements with some pop-rock openings, as in the chorus of “Suffer”, built on the model of U2 post-“Zooropa”, or in the gem “Like A Lesson”.
It is therefore a sound generally blunter, less raw, but this does not mean that the Pillow Queens have forgotten to strap on distortions and overdrive to the guitar pedals: “Gone” is very tight, but also the ballad “One Night” and “Blew Up The World” exploit the guitar system to achieve greater physicality.
“Name Your Sorrow” is an impetuous work, also direct on a textual level. Few metaphors, few periphrases, but a simple language and a strong emotional charge to thematize different forms of pain, in particular that of love, over a 45-minute journey, which ends with a demonstration of self-empowerment. “I don’t wanna go home alone this weekend/ I think I’m worth the time/ I’m worth the time”, sings Pamela Connolly in the final track. And it is a statement that fully echoes the group’s artistic growth from both a compositional and performance point of view. Because if it is true that the work on the melodies in most of the songs was better achieved than in the past, it is precisely Connolly’s interpretation that makes the difference. The words are lived, sung in search of an internal catharsis that unfolds through the riff of guitars.
On the other hand, the Pillow Queens confided this to us already at the beginning of the album (“No I’m not sad/ Let’s just play some rock and roll music”), using a form of hysteron proteron to remind the listener that music can sometimes really have a therapeutic effect.
06/23/2024
