Needs are a Punk five piece hailing from Vancouver in Canada, and whilst their homeland may well garner a reputation of kindness and chilled out vibes, somebody better tell these guys that! Their erratic delivery of punk on this self-titled release (File Under Music) feels almost neurotic and overall makes for a very strong release. Don’t think anyone is doubting the Canadian level of humour which is on display here in abundance, either as some of the track titles alone should pick up some kind of reward – ‘Clowns To The Left Of Me, Dzhokhars to the Right’ and ‘We Don’t Know Why We Are Protesting is Why We Are Protesting’ are two particular gems in that respect.
A key aspect to this record being altogether very impressive is the fact that whilst aggressive sounding, they’ve injected their music with a whole load of fun as well. You can already envisage people bouncing around at live shows singing along to some of the lyrics. A good example of this is with the track ‘We Forgot the Records to Our Record Release Show’ which displays a high tempo punk sound underneath some genuinely entertaining lyrics, “What am I doing? No seriously, what am I doing. I’m 36 Years Old, 37 in a couple of months” – a sentiment which no doubt a hell of a lot of bands will be able to identify and relate with.
Overall then, this album is indeed a strong dose of Punk which will hopefully not go completely under the radar. Needs are evidence of the fact that if you search hard enough amongst the million bands out there at the moment, you will find a gem, and an entertaining one at that – this is definitely worth checking out.
7.0/10
TOM DONNO