This musical collective, The Pinkerton Raid, from Durham, North Carolina, offers up their third album, Tolerance Ends, Love Begins and it is a thoughtful and interesting mix of pop, rock, rural sounds and poetry.  What makes this intriguing to me is that members of this group are immersed and involved with the community in Durham, which I think has a lot to do with the vibe that comes through in their music.  Being grounded in where you’re from can be a very powerful and elevating element, creatively.

The stark narrative of “Righteous Rain” is a haunting opener; textured and layered sounds with a vocal that exudes pain and want; “Hollywood” has a thrust and power about it which is clever, considering it’s in a semi-waltz time; “Deeper Than Skin” has an upbeat country-ish feel – energetic and uplifting and “Don’t”‘s mix of guitars and organ gives a slight darkness to match the world-weary vocal delivery – the neat contradiction is the chorus errupts into major chords and sounds much more buoyant.  The title track, “Tolerance Ends” is easily the most radio-friendly track and is full-bodied with its mixture of basic band arrangements and added (what sounds like) brass and strings to help build the dramatic nature of the song and the dynamics of “quiet/loud/quiet” is the icing.

A very nice effort from this group.  The earthiness and musicianship makes this a highly enjoyable listen and something that suits the oncoming change of seasons from spring to summer as this is a truly warm album.

RECOMMENDED

Tolerance Ends, Love Begins is currently available

http://www.pinkertonraid.com/

About the Author

Rob Ross

Rob Ross has been, for good, bad or indifferent, involved in the music industry for over 30 years - first as guitarist/singer/songwriter with The Punch Line, then as freelance journalist, producer and manager to working for independent and major record labels. He resides in Staten Island, New York with his wife and cats; he works out a lot, reads voraciously, loves Big Star and his orange Gretsch. Doesn't that make him neat?

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