The bio I have for Pears ends with “It’s going to be rad as fuck” – so obviously I was excited to give them a listen. The New Orleans-based four-piece have only existed in their current iteration for nine months, and it shows. But in a good way, mind. Remember when you first heard Choking Victim, and it seemed like they just recorded everything without trying to impress you? In fact it seemed like a lot of it was to spite you? I feel a similar way about Pears, and I’m hooked.

Opening track “You’re Boring” sounds like F-Minus at their finest; 54 seconds of catchy, fast noise. As the album progresses more influences become apparent, with similarities to Kid Dynamite, Good Riddance and especially The Dwarves prevalent throughout. The songs blend into each other, so it’s hard to choose a favourite track, but that’s no bad thing. The only time the album takes it’s foot off the pedal is for the cover of The Ramones’ “Judy is a Punk”, and that song’s great.

Clocking in at 21 minutes, with only one song over 3 minutes you get through the songs quickly, but I would recommend listening to the album a couple more times. You start to pick out more parts, and will definitely start singing along to the choruses. After only nine months, I am excited to see what else Pears can do. Go To Prison is a very strong first album, and I’ll be keeping an eye out for more.

– Alex Ryan