Funny thing about kicking: it\u2019s one of the first and last things we do. In the womb, a fetus kicks to announce an imminent arrival. Meanwhile, laid out on a stretcher, the dying man is \u201cstill kicking\u201d up until his final moment, when the last thing he kicks is the bucket.<\/p>\n
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All through life we take our kicks: teenage kicks, modern kicks, kicks in the gut. These days, with the worldwide rise of fascists, demagogues, abusers, and hypocrites, the kick we feel most often comes while we\u2019re down.<\/p>\n
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From their sudden and deliberate first chord on Love Keeps Kicking<\/em>, beloved British punk collective Martha announce their intent to kick back. Across 11 tracks, these daughters and sons of Pity Me, England, show that, while our world might be in spiral, there is still plenty worth fighting for.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In many ways Love Keeps Kicking<\/em> is a breakup record, with each song inhabiting different parts of the process. \u201cThis year blew my world apart\u201d sings guitarist\/vocalist Daniel Ellis on album opener \u201cHeart is Healing.\u201d With lush vocal harmonies (and one of the best riffs in Martha\u2019s discography) \u201cHealing\u201d explores the uncomfortable period between love\u2019s end, and when the heart is ready to move on.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Elsewhere, the opening chords of \u201cOrange Juice\u201d (arguably the best song Martha have written to date) echo the kicking of it\u2019s narrator\u2019s heart, as they suddenly realize with fearful clarity that their longtime relationship is ending. \u201cI didn\u2019t know it then, but you were falling out of love with me \/ It\u2019s a new development in the plan \/ a painful change in circumstance,\u201d Nathan Stephens-Griffin sings, wringing out the imminent meaning in each word. Ending just as it begins, \u201cOrange Juice\u201d is Martha at their most heartbreaking, hitting a tender, bittersweet, middle ground between Paul Westerberg and the Pastels as Stephens-Griffin confesses \u201cI don\u2019t know what to do now.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n But while many songs are openly about romantic breakups, most could just as easily about the pain of seeing the world swing dramatically towards the far right. As Pitchfork noted in their glowing review of 2016\u2019s Blisters in the Pit of My Heart,<\/em> Martha explore the \u201cintersections of reality and emotionality.\u201d For a band whose identities are political whether or not they want them to be, daily life in 2018 is often a kick in the teeth.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n On Love Keeps Kicking<\/em>, this vulnerability becomes one of Martha\u2019s greatest strengths. Again and again, the band lovingly gives voice (all four voices) to lives lived on the edge: institutionalized children (\u201cMini Was a Preteen Arsonist\u201d), outcasts (\u201cWrestlemania VIII\u201d), lovesick demonologists (\u201cLove Keeps Kicking\u201d), and feminist sci-fi writers (\u201cLucy Shone a Light On You: The Ballad of Lucy Connor Part II\u201d). These are the people Martha celebrate, reminding them (and us) that love might not be there now, but it\u2019s still kicking.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Maturity in punk is often code for \u201cboring\u201d. Sometimes that\u2019s true, but if Love Keeps Kicking<\/em> illustrates anything, it\u2019s the importance of growth in a stunted world\u2014of knowing how to love what you have, and how to celebrate the loves you\u2019ve lost. Martha have already made a case for themselves as this generation\u2019s Buzzcocks (if not this generation\u2019s Clash), and with Love Keeps Kicking <\/em>fans will likely find themselves discovering even more about the band to love. Because even if the world\u2019s going to shit, love keeps kicking.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n – Mike Huguenor<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Funny thing about kicking: it\u2019s one of the first and last things we do. In the womb, a fetus kicks to announce an imminent arrival. Meanwhile, laid out on a stretcher, the dying man is \u201cstill kicking\u201d up until his final moment, when the last thing he kicks is the bucket. All through life […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-new-releases","category-releases"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dirtnaprecs.com\/website\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dirtnaprecs.com\/website\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dirtnaprecs.com\/website\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dirtnaprecs.com\/website\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dirtnaprecs.com\/website\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3168"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.dirtnaprecs.com\/website\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3168\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3179,"href":"https:\/\/www.dirtnaprecs.com\/website\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3168\/revisions\/3179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dirtnaprecs.com\/website\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dirtnaprecs.com\/website\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dirtnaprecs.com\/website\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}