The Pigeon Detectives - I'm Not Sorry (Dance To The Radio)
UK release date: 21 May 2007
'I Will Survive' for the alcopop generation? Maybe.
Terrible name. Yet there's more to The Pigeon Detectives. First released over a year ago, I'm Not Sorry is a riddle wrapped up in an enigma. On the surface, it's a leery, shouty paean to moving on after a bad relationship, sung by the male half of the duo. Yet on closer inspection it could be a dialogue between the streetwise, cynical female and the wide-eyed innocent she's left behind.
It's probably not, of course, but The Pigeon Detectives are rather successful in their attempts to put the Love back into Leeds. Musically, they may remind us of Shed Seven, but their bruised hearts and furrowed brows suggest the kinds of teenage drinkers that yearn to inhabit a Edward Hopper painting, instead of furnishing the gutter with their own take on Jackson Pollock. I'm Not Sorry won't win any awards for originality, nor will it advance music into the white heat of the 21st century. It is simple, heartfelt and honest, and perhaps we're shouldn't ask for much more.