Whenever I complain that there are too many nouns out there (which is more often than you would think) I get told I'm an idiot. But did we really need a genre called Psych-Pop? I have no problem with referring to some pop as psychedelic. You can adjective until the cows come home but I don't think we needed a new label. That said it seems like a good place to put Louisa Roach's band She Drew The Gun until the people at Collins start taking my complaints seriously.

Wirral four piece She Drew The Gun have been no stranger to the studio with countless singles and an EP dating back to 2013, however today they released just their third studio album Behave Myself. Repetitive synth effects deep in the mix keep us chugging along through this album under a foreground of sharp drum beats and vocal effects. The echoey guitars give an occasional surf rock feel although the synth does a good job of scaring that off whenever it gets too prominent. The main act here though is Roach's voice which darts between monotonic spoken word and delicately sung dreamy hooks. Songs like Something For The Pain and Co-op that are melodic throughout leave, me at least, wanting more. Although beautiful, Roach's voice has a slight note of indifference that suggests she could quite happily roll over and continue sleeping at any point.
Her spoken word in some of the earlier tracks on the album and particularly Class War make the listener feel they are here to learn something and remind us of the obvious punk influences at play here. Unlike some of those influences however I can comfortably listen to Behave Myself cover to cover without the lyrical content bogging me down too much despite the effort made.

I like the subtle, politically driven, punk energy this album offers and the times when Roach treats us to her singing voice is where I am most happy. The album has a surprisingly clean sound which is really well achieved through directed and defined instrumentation which I really like. Behave Myself is out now so please take a listen and let me know your thoughts.

Chris Peters