It’s no surprise that Pennine Suite won the public vote to play on the main stage at Truck 2024 despite only having a handful of singles readily available. I saw them back in December, this group of five people who all look dressed for separate events coming on stage at the Leadmill, playing tunes that wouldn’t be out of place at the alternative club night arriving in a few hours. Their sound, if put into a spotify daylist title, would be 'fuzzy-indie-disco' on a Saturday night: music for getting ready to, hopping around looking for your other shoe. It’s music that is impossible not to smile at.
July, then, is the perfect time to release Typical Fantasy, a song set for sticky summer picnics the week leading up to Truck Festival. With a Kings of Leon-style opening, it’s easy to mistake that this song will rely on riffs to make its place; but then the drums and synth keys kick in and it’s suddenly so much more.
It’s sharper than their last single, Make Up, from August 2023. A year of no releases but ample touring (covering the UK and a European debut in Paris) has clearly given the band the time they needed to refine their sound and discover what works best for them.
A standout of Pennine Suite is the way their vocalists work together. Nick, the frontman, has an absolute crooner of a voice with a classic indie Yorkshire inflection; while Louise balances the keyboard and backing vocals. While her sections are short and sweet, it would be impossible to ignore the impact they have on the song, adding a new layer.
The strings of Typical Fantasy put me in mind of Just To Keep You Satisfied by Inhaler - mixing a poppy beat with grunge influences. It pauses in the pre-chorus build up to make space for the keys to shine through, falling in with the line:
‘but I don’t mean to cause a scene / everytime you look at me I fall deeper into the dream’
This is one of two musical pauses - the other just before the line:
‘Because escaping you is no priority of mine’
Whether by coincidence or meticulously planned, both of these pauses take place for Nick to sing the most romantic lyrics in the single. It’s this relationship between vocals and instruments that assures me Pennine Suite know what they’re doing - they know how to equalise their range through many talents, and there isn’t any shying away from amplifying each member.
To summarise, then, Pennine Suite have provided us with an alternative love song, an ode that shows their mastery, in time for a Truck main stage performance. Mark our words: they’re onto big things.
"TYPICAL FANTASY"
TO BE RELEASED ON 19 JULY 2024
