Balloon Balloon Balloon Sharp Pins
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Fall in Love again with Balloon Balloon Balloon Submission. That’s the word that comes to mind when tasked with spending time on the overwhelming pop planet that belongs to Kai Slater’s Sharp Pins. The universe only works when you submit: submit to love, submit to rock music. Submission to the power that comes from a kid wielding his guitar to craft impeccable guitar pop that stands in a pantheon of idols he joins with this record. Of course it makes sense to be mad at first. Everyone was mad at Big Star for getting too close to the Beatles. And everyone will be mad at Sharp Pins for doing the same and then adding Guided by Voices into the mix. How dare he? The hubris. What 20 year old thinks they can out Robert Pollard the man himself? “Queen of Globes and Mirrors?” Criminal. With a worse crime of crafting songs so puzzlingly timeless, a listener may well believe they were poached from a lost Beatles tape. “I Don’t Have the Heart” and “(I Want to) Be Your Girl” genuinely confuse from when or where they were made. But if Balloon x 3 reminds us of anything, it's that only Kai can do this. With his 12-string and infatigable obsession with pop music, Slater is uniquely equipped to carry the mantle of not only Pollard and Chilton, but the Byrds too, or the Temptations, the Four Tops, and every other artist trying to nail true love to tape. He employs the “asking for forgiveness not permission” tactic when tasked with borrowing from these greats, our only option is to forgive Slater for giving us these gems of rock n roll, propelling it from the past into a future so melodiously flawless, yet jagged and sincere, we can’t help but thank him too for rescuing the genre from irrelevance. Because what Slater adds is entirely his own. An ineffable songwriting sensibility, that despite the heavy borrowing, can only be his. By the end of the album, you swallow whatever anger or incredulity you may have had and accept that yes, the Sharp Pins really are that good. Throughout the spanning but never indulgent LP, he crafts a world peppered with small pop gems, so simply and stupidly good, they remind us another world is possible. Because it’s not just that the songs are impossible to get out of your head, which they are. It’s that Slater’s own devotion to this pursuit of the perfect pop song makes us believe it is not only possible, but enough to give life shape and color again. Fall in Love Again is not a suggestion, it’s a requirement. Not just with a beautiful girl, of whom there are many on the album, but with the world itself. Perhaps only then will it be possible to push toward the future that 20 year old Slater himself dreams of, but in the meantime, we have his love letters to rock n’ roll and the world around it to keep us company.
Product information
UNITED KINGDOM
Singles/7” £3.50 + £1 per each additional record.
LPs and 10”: £5.00 for up to 2kg and between £51 and £150 – Tracked 48
LPS and 10”: £12.00 for up to 2kg and over £150 – Royal Mail Special Delivery
For Packages above 2kg (6 plus records) – £10.95 up to 5kg and 15.95 from 5k to 10k
Delivery is by Parcel Force
EUROPE
Singles/7” : £10 Royal Mail Signed and Tracked
LPs and 10”: £13 for up to 2kg and less than £500 – Royal Mail Signed and Tracked
For Packages above 2kg (6 plus records) – £18.75 up to 10kg.
WORLD ZONE 1
United States, Canada, Argentina, Brazil, South Africa, India, China, Japan, Hong Kong, Israel, Oman, United Arab Emirates, Thailand, Vietnam.
Singles/LPs/10”: £15.00 up to 1.5kg and less than £500 – Royal Mail Signed and Tracked
Singles/LPs/10”: £20 over 1.5kg and less than 2kg and less than £500 – Royal Mail Signed and Tracked
For Packages above 2kg (6 plus records) – £35 up to 10kg.
WORLD ZONE 2
Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Fiji.
Singles/LPs/10”: £18.00 up to 1.5kg and less than £500 – Royal Mail Signed and Tracked
Singles/LPs/10”: £24.00 over 1.5kg and less than 2kg and less than £500 – Royal Mail Signed and Tracked
For Packages above 2kg (6 plus records) – £43 up to 10kg.
All customers are responsible for paying the necessary customs1 fees charged. We will not be able to under declare the value of any order for customs as it is unlawful to do so.
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FORFEITURE OF CANCELLATION RIGHT
Your right to cancel may be forfeited if you unseal goods that are not suitable for return due to hygiene or health reasons, unseal sealed audio/video recordings or software, or combine goods with other items to make them inseparable.
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