Peelington - We Will Survive

Hear The Track Here

A standard musicians saying; less is more. Another; You can't beat three chords. The latter is how Peelington describes We Will Survive and I have to say I agree with him completely - providing they are the right three chords. I met Peelington when I reviewed Broken (March 2009) and I wasn't exactly effusive about the experience. Decidedly underwhelmed even. The work on it, and the song itself weren't that bad, but the lack of coherence in the arrangement left lots to be desired - as did the fairly basic demo feel to the recording. Of course, we can't all have the best kit - and very few of us do - but even so in this internet age, decent production tools are ten a penny.

Three words; free VST plugins...

The problem, as I see it, is that lack of production nous severely limits the impact of Peelington's tracks and - unfortunately - We Will Survive suffers from the same dilemma. The song, the music and the energy are right on the money and - in some ways - can't be faulted but that's where the good stuff ends. Judging by the comments though, I am in the minority because most people seem to like the track. 'I love punk' Peelie states, and I can see that because We Will Survive has tons of that raw-edged rock sound so beloved of spikeheads everywhere. On of the biggest problems, for me anyway, is that the track concentrated too much on that jingly jangly side of the guitars rather than the meat and potatoes of the backline.

Consequently most of the propulsion in the track is squandered, overwhelmed by the guitars and vocals. Even then those selfsame vocals also get somewhat lost in the mix too and IMHO that is one of the highlights of the track, The most grievous fault, at least as far as I am concerned, is the lack of mid to low range sounds that are absolutely essential for putting across the kind of skull breaking sound punk initially specialised in. If more attention had been spent putting together a solid, meaty backline (Ed: music speak for bass and drums) then - for sure - the track would have found a lot more favour with me. Nonetheless, I am well prepared to be in the minority here and say that it's probably best, in this case, that you make up your own mind.