An electrifying indie-pop rocket, Pushpin's new single is a refreshing palette cleanser of lesser-heard influences.
Photo: Lily Doige | Words: Elvis Thirlwell
New music from Pushpin has been a long time coming. In the intervening years since 2022's debut EP Picnic - the south-east London Quartet have been playing gigs basically every week, slowly but surely amassing their cult following and selling out London headline shows. Unconcerned with prevailing trends or fashions, Pushpin's oeuvre offers a palette-cleansing cocktail of lesser spotted influence: think Vampire Weekend, Fiona Apple, Hawaiian shirts, shorts and sandals; cardboard cut-outs of pooches voyaging across the wavy cardboard seas.
Surface-level assessments aside, 'The Dance' is simply electrifying. Charmed, playful, yet thunderously assured. There's handclaps and yelps; electric violins wailing across the firmament like drawn-out claps of lightning; acoustic guitars rattling and pulsing as if clawed at by the rhythmic hands of stone giants. With a lyric about coming out of your shell, tearing down the wallflowers and defying the world with pride in your own powers of expression – "I didn't dance but it's all I practice now" – 'The Dance' is every bit as triumphant and seismic as such messaging warrants, bolstered a monstrous, haymaker mix from producer Joseph Futak (Tapir!, Lilo, etc.).
Pushpin are marching into the ballpit, declaring playtime against the musty and drab, decorating the universe with bundles of felt tip pens clutched in their palms like daggers.
Catch them headline the Lexington this Friday, with support from Preen and Stepbrother - tickets here.
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