East Yorkshire trio Strange Pink have spent their early singles sharpening a sound that straddles grit and vulnerability, but with their debut EP Out Of Focus they’ve crafted something weightier: six tracks that balance raw urgency with disarming introspection. Recorded at York’s Young Thugs studio with producer Nick ‘The Muscle’ Russell and mastered by Ed Woods, the record channels the volatility of alt-rock and grunge into something both immediate and strangely timeless.
Opener Pencil Chewer (already championed by Radio X and BBC 6 Music) sets the tone with psych-tinged riffs and a narrative lifted from Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus. It’s a track that burns with menace, as if power and destruction were locked into the very chord changes. From there, the EP shifts into the gauzier Wonderland, a bittersweet reflection that leans into dream-pop textures while never quite surrendering its edge.
My Friend and You captures the strange intimacy of post-lockdown life, its feedback-flecked guitars recalling Sonic Youth while the lyrics frame shared catastrophe as a kind of twisted companionship. Lucky Charm, the first song Strange Pink wrote together, carries the weight of suspended chords and restless tuning, its slow-burn evolution from Thurston Moore–inspired sketches to a heavier, darker arrangement a testament to the band’s creative chemistry.
The EP’s second single, Boys Club, is its most direct political punch, funnelling the sneer of ’90s punk into a critique of entitlement and unchecked power. Here, Strange Pink show their knack for merging American-leaning riffs with the lyrical bite of British social commentary. Closer Nowhere pulls back the distortion without losing the drama, stretching into an expansive finale that feels like both catharsis and collapse.
Beneath the fuzz and feedback, Out Of Focus is an album about perspective, yet still finding cohesion in the fragments. It’s also a story of persistence: drummer Dom Smith, navigating the challenges of cerebral palsy, brings both resilience and intensity to the kit, his journey underscoring the band’s commitment to pushing through barriers of every kind.
With upcoming gigs in Hull and York, Strange Pink prove themselves more than just another regional outfit dabbling in nostalgia. Out Of Focus is the sound of a band unafraid to wear its scars in full view.