By Peter Doherty
Out of the ashes of Precious Ink comes, rises, Critch. Consisting of Adam Crookes, Connor Dixon and Bailey Kettell, and spearheaded by James Critchlow, Critch supply a filthy amount of Indie essence and energy on their debut project No Ball Games.
“This EP holds a special place in my heart, as it’s a perfect blend of our first chapter. Starting with ‘Healing Alone’, which starts dark and melodic, gradually building into a harmonic chorus and building with each verse. Meanwhile, ‘Animal Kingdom’ and ‘Coffee Stain’ are our proven catchy singalong hits ‒ garnering the most attention previous to the release. Not to forget ‘Skint’ and ‘Punk Floyd’, which demonstrate our heavier side that is adored live.” – James Critchlow.
No Ball Games opens slowly with “Healing Alone”, before taking off into introspective aspects brighter than yellow on green. We’re all a part of the same problem, place and point in time, yet we will only ever heal alone.
One for the caffeine lovers takes the shape of “Coffee Stain”. The track houses a pretty wild guitar solo of sorts – Guitar Hero here we come.
‘What you gonna do? What you gonna do?’
The inner Johnny Rotten within Critch comes out on penultimate track “Skint” as the wretched twisting of the word ‘Life’ at the end of each chorus rings Rotten.
‘It’s a market, not an enterprise.’
As per the No Ball Games press release, “[the project] springs from lived experiences, capturing real moments, late nights, and the chaos of figuring it all out.”
The project sees itself out with “Punk Floyd”.
‘You know, I know, it’s all BS’.
I’ve personally seen these songs – Coffee Stain and Punk Floyd specifically – played live well over a year ago at this stage. They’ve been bubbling and brewing for a while now.
If you’d like to catch Critch in the flesh, they play Independent (Sunderland) on 29/11, and The Grove (Newcastle) on December 13th, with more dates sure to be announced.
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