High school friends drop out of school and catch a New York City bound bus with dreams of starting a band. Frenzied press hype soon follows, along with label bidding wars, a debut album, and a global tour. The story of Public Access T.V. is one from the music industry of yesteryear and not this current digital age. Yet this is what makes it even more remarkable and enthralling.

However, like all good fairy tales, there has to be a plot twist that takes the narrative to the darker scale, and Public Access T.V. possess one which is darker than most. Following the first album came drug addiction, recovery programmes, in-fights and a devastating explosion that destroyed all their earthly possessions. All this coming within 18 months and placing the band’s very existence into question. Thankfully, this made the four-piece stronger and a sophomore effort followed that ditches the omnipresent stretch of indie stompers previously seen and replaces it with a more complex palette that is even more absorbing and stimulating.

The band, comprised of frontman and lead-singer John Eatherly, Xan Aird, Max Peebles, and Pete Star, entered the studio to record the new album early in 2017 with producer Patrick Wimberly (Beyonce, Chairlift, MGMT, Blood Orange) armed with a plethora of songs they’d written documenting the tumultuous times they had faced. Finding stability through restraint, the constant theme of the record is Eatherly observing these different times and attempting to make sense of them, “I think it’s a cop-out to say that this is our mature album, or whatever cliché thing it is that bands say about their second album. There was no spiritual awakening or come-to-Jesus moment. We’re four young guys trying to figure our lives out, be good people, and a lot of the time find the deliverance,” he explained.

There’s hints of 70s funk in ‘Metrotech’, with the first single an indicator of the more expansive sonics on this album with its revolving groove. Whilst ‘Lost In The Game’ continues that theme with an incessantly catchy beat that borders into r’n’b. ‘Rough Boy’, meanwhile, is a Ramones-esque track that could only have been written in New York. The most political track the band have ever penned, it questions the recruitment of young American men into the forces and how young individuals need to trust themselves and be brave enough to have their own opinion about things.

‘Shell No. 2’ then comes along in the form of a carefully crafted pop track which again shows Eatherly’s knack for melody. The same could be said for ‘Wait It Out’ with its funky under core and Prince-esque guitars that sprinkle the composition with some magic.

‘Told You Too Much’ is a gentle love song that drifts along nicely with intermittent vocal harmonies before a cinematic synth line with 70s undertones takes hold on ‘Meltdown’. Album closer ‘The Quicksands’ is then the most progressive composition the band have ever written, with post-punk dispositions giving an indication of what album three may sound like.

Public Access T.V. have come out well from a morbid period in their life, with Eatherly’s ear for melody and arrangement as impeccable as ever throughout the 11 tracks. Street Safari takes the best bits of its predecessor and builds on them to create something more substantial and thought-provoking.

Paul Hill

Website: patvmusic.com
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