At first, it seems ironic that a rock band like Sheer Mag would release a debut album with an uncannily sci-fi cover like the enigmatic shot that adorns Need to Feel Your Love. While "Meet Me in the Street," the album opener that equally recalls both Thin Lizzy and Big Star heaped with front woman Tina Halladay's preternatural swagger, is not the kind of rock song you really hear anymore, Sheer Mag have a story that couldn't really take place any time before this decade.
When the Philadelphia band came to Sydney last year, they didn't play bigger venues frequented by international acts, but instead Leichhardt's Bald Faced Stag pub. Since 2014, Sheer Mag have been building their name through the internet with self-released EPs with muddy, smeared sound, guitars so loud that they frequently clip, and a unassailable passion to everything they released. They've transcended local hero status, and become known around the world in a way that only the internet (and our increased reliance on it) can allow.
Following a compilation of their three EPs released earlier this year, Need to Feel Your Love proves that the fiercely independent Sheer Mag have lost none of their spark. In fact, while the album does show some refinement in their composition and their sound, these songs have only become more forceful and pointed. The bracing "Can't Stop Fighting" was a highlight of their III EP, and here has its even-more-punk cousins in the form of the one-two punch "Expect the Bayonet" and "Rank and File."
The dual-guitar attack of the former slowly builds to a jaw-dropping crescendo. Entering the fray, Halladay's voice proves itself to have remarkable stamina against not only the six-string attack of her bandmates Kyle Seely and Matt Palmer, but also the hegemonic status quo that she rails against with militaristic aggression. The band's clear-eyed Fight the Power passion stops their music from sounding like a vacuous throwback, and situates it clearly in the present as a direct heir to the classic rock, punk, and R&B that clearly influenced them.
Unlike certain songs - "Meet Me in the Street," the aforementioned duo, the knotty, almost-country "Suffer Me" - would suggest, Need to Feel Your Love is not all confrontation. The jangly guitars of the title track echo with nerve tingling joy. Later on, those same gentle tones return on the highlight "Pure Desire" where Halladay lowers her roar to a purr over some absolutely brilliant slap bass from Hart Heely.
Towards the end of the record, Sheer Mag indulge in the short and sweet (the beautiful "Until You Find the One") and a bit of classic rock riff salad in the form of "Milk & Honey." Despite the two sides of the band's personality - half lovers. half fighters - the record never feels overly busy or inconsistent. "(Say Goodbye to) Sophie Scholl" closes the record on a more melancholy note than we've heard before from the band, complete with hovering background harmonies, introducing yet another side to Sheer Mag's complex on-record presence.
Sonically, Need to Feel Your Love doesn't break new ground, but it never feels old or irrelevant. In terms of musicianship and performance, Sheer Mag blow a majority of their peers out of the water. With their distinctive lo-fi idiosyncrasies, the band have already established a thrilling sound that always feels like it could conquer the world. Time will tell if that happens, but for now we can just press play again.
Need to Feel Your Love is out on Friday July 14th on digital formats.
