Pulled Apart By Horses are an indie/alternative rock four-piece from Leeds. Formed in 2008, the band have put out three full length albums over the years. On Friday, the band released their fourth record, The Haze. Hype for this record started building in November with the release of the lead single, The Big What If. You can watch the video for the track here:
The record opens with its title track, made up of grungy riffs and raw shouty vocals which demonstrates the band’s gritty rock ‘n’ roll sound perfectly. The Big What If follows, and its fun tongue-in-cheek lyrics such as “I pray to my own toilet bowl that I won’t be swallowed whole” demonstrate that Pulled Apart By Horses aren’t the type to take themselves too seriously.
One of the running themes of the record is the band’s up tempo, high intensity style which makes The Haze’s listening experience endlessly exciting. You never quite know whether an awesome drum fill, wailing guitar riff or snarled vocal hook is coming next, and that’s what makes the album so interesting. There are also plenty of catchy shout-along choruses to be found as well, demonstrated perfectly by Flash Lads and My Evil Twin.
There are a couple of slower tracks to be found on The Haze as well, such as the meandering Lamping which is full of la-la-las and starts out with a cool, trippy intro of birdsong and synths. It’s the longest song on the record clocking in at just under four and a half minutes long, but I reckon the track needed that amount of breathing room, and the rest of the album is punchy enough that Lamping is a welcome change of pace.
Back in 2015 Pulled Apart By Horses’ original drummer, Lee Vincent, left the band and was replaced with Tommy Davidson, and I honestly feel like the new drums have injected a new lease of life into the band. From an outsider’s perspective it seems to me that the line-up change forced the band to approach writing for The Haze in a new, fresh way. Frontman Tom Hudson explained in interviews that the band recorded the album back on an isolated farm in Wales, and it seems like this helped them to focus solely on creating a kick ass record.
Highlights: The Big What If, Neighbourhood Witch, Lamping, My Evil Twin
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