Following a number of personal and professional hurdles – not to mention a global pandemic – Indoor Pets almost called it quits in 2020 but now they’re back at their spiritual home of Alcopop! Records with a brand new album called ‘Pathetic Apathetic’ – and it’s one that finds the four-piece embracing their love of the heavyweights of early ’90s grunge while keeping their pop sensibilities very much in check.
The album opens with lead single ‘London (Love to Hate)’, their heaviest song to date that celebrates the multi-culturalism and rich culture of our capital city while also taking aim at the gig economy and how hard the rich and their cronies are making it for people to live and enjoy life in this setting… This scuzzy sound continues through to ‘Dopamine Girls’, a track that finds Jamie Glass talking about serotonin, dopamine, lust and crushing hard: ‘I’m a patient that needs to learn patience’. Frantic drumming signals the start of the title track and this Hives-esque glam rock beast packs a punch as Jamie laments first-world problems: ‘Your online protests are not fooling anyone’. Oh, and there’s a great shout of ‘fuck’ at the end.
Think of David Byrne. Now imagine him covering Reuben. Thats kind of what ‘Stink Eye’ sounds like and it’s completely glorious, while ‘Sadness is a Phase’ finds Indoor Pets heading back to a Britpop sound while lamenting how sad mortgages, taking responsibilty and ‘growing young’ can make you… ‘Fidget Panic Restless Static’ is a title that so many of us – especially if we’re natural introverts – can relate to and the stop-start and frenetic nature does not disappoint. ‘Spinal Tap’ could be a distant cousin of Idlewild’s ‘Idea Track’ with its robotic vocoder vocals and dreamy soundscape, while ‘Self Isolate’ is full of chunky riffs as Jamie tries to find hope in empty words (‘Everything’s going to be fine. Does that line help you sleep at night?’) even when ‘Humanity has lost its human touch’.
The closing ‘Beta Test Me’ has talk of an ego busting your own bubble and a melancholy edge as the statement ‘Let’s take the fun out of summer, cause we can’t ignore the winter’ swirls around in style… With ‘Pathetic Apathetic’, Indoor Pets have created something special that you’ll passionately fall for…