Album Review: The Scratch, Pull Like A Dog

The phrase ‘pull like a dog’ was popularised in an interview with the almost world-beating O’Donovan brothers during the Rio Olympics in 2016, when they used it to describe their silver medal-winning rowing strategy.

It’s hard to know exactly what The Scratch are referencing in the title track of their new album, with the poetic lyrics being open to interpretation (“So red is the beggar’s hand / Up she flew / Hadn’t lost a feather... So pull like a dog / Always being told to go placidly among the noise”).

But if you take ‘pull like a dog’ to mean pushing yourself to the limit to reach the next destination, you’ve got a nifty way to describe the Dublin outfit’s approach on their latest record. Boasting a new member in Gary Regan, The Scratch’s latest outpouring is also their gnarliest and most abstract.

Much of Pull Like A Dog leans into the latter half of the trad-metal tag taxonomists often use to describe the band. ‘Gladrag’ features a riff that would fit nicely – well, nastily – in the Rage Against The Machine repertoire, while ‘Mother Of God’ tackles epistemic questions with a heavy drop in key.

There are folkier moments that add to the sonic breadth and impact. ‘Ringsend’, based on the poem by Oliver St. John Gogarty, is a finely-wrought acoustic droner, featuring ethereal vocals from Susan O’Neill, while ‘I Hope All Is Forgiven’ is a thought-provoking, introspective meditation on remorse.

Overall, a fiercely compelling offering.

• Out now.

8/10