Innocent reviews… the good and the bad!
August 6th, 2007Click Music
‘Innocent’ is a guitar-driven almost Placebo-like number, which makes the most of the impassioned American sounding vocals of frontman Josh Thorner. A rasping keyboard opens before the song breaks into all-out warfare with itself, before cutting down to just bass drums and keyboards. The band’s use of dynamics work to great effect; drawing the listener in during quiet phases and blasting the ear drums when the volume is cranked up.
The song is perhaps a little too stationary and musically does not travel very far, but for such a young band they’ve created something that can be developed - acting as a good stepping stone for better things in the future.”
http://www.clickmusic.com/articles/5076.html
Newzline
Rated 8/10 -” ‘When you listen to Pinstripe you may be forgiven for thinking that you’re listening to some new American band. Not in a whinny ‘I’m so English but I’m trying to be American cause I’m like cool an stuff’ kinda of way. No, thankfully its because on their new single ‘Innocent’ the sound that comes out is polished, which makes it even more surprising when you realise Pinstripe are actually made up by four teenage lads. Yeah this track has everything you might expect from an up an coming indie/rock outfit (big guitar’s, big drums, warbling teen angst) and yeah they may be just the right side of good looking to get the teenage girls all in a swirl, or at the very least the new McFly without the embarrasing scissor-jumps, but they’re actually kinda good.”
http://www.newzline.com/2007/07/25/pinstripe-innocent-single-review/
Die Shellsuit Die!
Rated 7/10 -” ‘Innocent’ is a rather atmospheric and driving piece of Brit rock, with passionate and powerful vocals. Rather than relying on gimmicks, Pinstripe has produced a straight down the line rock track which can’t fail to appeal to fans of the genre. Whether they can build and progress onwards and upwards with this remains to be seen, but I hope that if they continue to produce this sort of calibre, then I certainly won’t begrudge them.”
http://www.dieshellsuit.co.uk/article_detail.asp?rID=1514
Refresh Daily
“Innocent is an epic track, that would give many of the indie bands in the Top 40 a run for their money. It builds slowly but once the wailing chorus and drums come in complete with guitar and keyboards it all comes together perfectly; very effective and memorable - these boys could go far.”
http://www.refresh.com/showthread.php?t=39707
Indie London
“Pinstripe had the distinction of being handpicked by Michael Eavis to appear at this year’s Glastonbury and to all intents went down a bit of a storm. They cite Oasis and Muse as inspirations and certainly Innocent shares plenty in common with the latter band. The guitars are loud, sweeping and epic in scope, while the song itself builds to quite a euphoric finale. Just occasionally, Josh Thorner’s vocals sound a little like James’ Tim Booth’s. With this in mind, it’s worth keeping an eye on the band as they clearly have a keen ear for a strong melody and a rousing indie-pop tune. And that’s not bad for a foursome of 16 and 17-year-olds who have been playing together since meeting at a school in the south west of England a few years ago. They have since played more than 100 gigs across the country since their debut in 2005.”
http://www.indielondon.co.uk/Music-sotw/music-singles-of-the-week-monday-july-23
Entertainment Manchester
“They won a Battle Of The Bands competition to play at Glastonbury and Innocent is a good, atmospheric rock tune that sounds like a massive band starting to take flight. It’s certainly a very confident and well-produced track that many stadium bands would be proud to call their own.”
http://www.entertainmentmanchester.com/music/single-reviews.
Culture Deluxe
“Being ‘handpicked’ by Michael Eavis to play Glastonbury is not always a guarantee of quality, remember Reef? But the bearded farmer of cool did indeed chance upon this teenage foursome this year and this single goes a long way to explaining their appeal. Eschewing the ‘angular’ guitar style of so many of today’s younger bands, Pinstripe side with the layered synth-based approach, blending euphonious, building chords with Josh Thorner’s falsetto. Looks like old beardie was right after all.”
http://www.culturedeluxe.com/
The Beat Surrender
“The track has everything you would expect from a guitar based indie rock band. Great punchy guitars, solid drum beat with Keane like vocals. What was most surprising was that this band is made of four sixteen and seventeen year olds, they have a very polished and professional approach to music and since they’ve been together for nearly three years have had quite a bit of live experience, including Glastonbury which isn’t half bad going for such youngsters. But to be quite honest this could be any one of a hundred or so bands I’ve heard which was a shame as I really did like what I heard but for me it just doesn’t stand out enough to keep me interested for long. I think that this could be a band to watch out for but only if they can get that added extra needed to make them stand out in the crowd. At the moment they have the young good looks which would attract the teen attention but I really hope they don’t rely on that as that would be a waste of the talent they obviously have.”
http://www.thebeatsurrender.co.uk/daily/recordbox/innocent/
020.com
“Pinstripe is a less well known commodity in these quarters despite apparently being ‘one of the hardest working bands in the country’. They bring us their new single ‘Innocent’ on 23rd July. Its all earnest sludgy guitars, earnest vocals and early New Order soaring synths. No doubt going for a sweeping festival moment its passable enough fair if a touch dated in the way it is executed. Still you could do worse, definitely a try before you buy and one for the emo/slasher kids especially.”
http://www.020.com/webs/02006/london/showArticle_london.cfm?id=840
satisfied