PLAIINS – Happy Faces
Release Date: 15th August 2025
Label: Long Branch Records
Bandcamp
Genre: Punk, Alt-Rock, Indie.
FFO: IDLES, Hives, Soft Play, Bad Nerves, The Streets, Viagra Boys.
Review By: Paul Franklin
This debut album perfectly captures that uniquely distinctive British punk/indie rock sound as peddled by bands such as Soft Play and IDLES. That mix of upbeat quirky music and gobby, often spoken, vocals.
Except…Plaiins are from Hamburg, Germany, and three quarters of them are natives.
It’s the contribution from the other quarter, English vocalist/guitarist Chris Reardon that is the cause for the miss-assumption of Britishness, with his snarky vocal delivery and sarcastic lyrics he sounds just like the geezer you’d find holding court in your local boozer.
Song titles such as Hotel Biscuits, Sports Bar and Amazon Warehouse also appeal to that idiosyncratic British wit. A wit that is used sharply against targets such as the self-help industry (Be More Animal) and the dangers of over-positivity (Happy Faces), whilst a disappointingly believable scenario in which the band are patronisingly advised on how they might expand their audience appeal is swiftly dealt with on the pointed Do One.
Plaiins are certainly not short of an infectious chorus, this thing is stuffed with them, helped by the fact they are not immune to mixing in some Brit-pop stylings. Executive Me is the kinda tune Damon Albarn would have written if he’d taken his head out of his arse for long enough, and Beefcake practically shimmers across its three-minute runtime.
Row She Said is a particular highlight, starting like an angry cox before delivering more energy than a tanker full of Red Bull in a nursery school.
A great debut, from an exciting band, that will most definitely leave you with a happy face.
(4 / 5)
