If you frequent punk shows in the UK, you’ll probably be familiar with Pacer. Mark Pavey and Dave House are known faces across the UK from their days in The Steal (and Dave’s solo work), so ‘Making Plans’ is an album that many have been looking forward to hearing this year.
Tracked live over two days, ‘Making Plans’ arrives unapologetically rough around the edges, but that doesn’t mean the production is bad by any means – the band’s sound is captured succinctly and nothing is lost in the mix.
The twelve tracks clock in at a fairly snappy 30 minutes (as is probably to be expected), and there’s certainly no danger of ‘Making Plans’ outstaying its welcome. As well as roots in UK punk and a few familiarities with bands like Bangers and The Arteries, influence from earlier Weezer, Green Day and Blink 182 material shines through in Pacer’s sound, but with Pavey’s unique lead vocal and identifiably personal lyrics, the band achieve a balance of the familiar and the fresh without trying particularly hard to do so.
The faster tracks are undoubtably the ones that will shine in the live environment – album bookenders ‘Be A Man’ and ‘Explainer? I Hardly Know Her’ in particular – but there’s little doubt that ‘Making Plans’ is everything it could have been and more. The slower tracks aren’t sluggish, the faster tracks remain controlled and the honest sentiment throughout is endearing – it gives the record a depth that many bands in the scene are lacking, and there’s a few footsteps put in place here that some with aspirations may do well to walk in.
Pacer have put together a fine, uncomplicated punk rock record in ‘Making Plans’, and though it’s not something that rewrites the rulebook, it doesn’t stick to it either and it arrives instantly listenable and interesting. 2012 is turning into a fine year for the UK punk scene, and if you don’t believe that then pull your head out of the sand.
TOM AYLOTT