Album Review: Escalating Quickly by Ten Foot Pole (by Dan Peters)

I don’t think I know a single punk who doesn’t have at least one Ten Foot Pole album in their collection. Were you an Unleashed guy like me, or maybe Insider, or for distinguished old school aficionado Rev? When you and your friends couldn’t decide on what to listen to, Ten Foot Pole were always a band that were universally loved. Now, after a 15 year hiatus, Ten Foot Pole are back with a brand new original album. To say I’m happy is an understatement and I’m sure it’s a feeling that’ll be echoed by a great many of you. So without further preamble, let’s dive in and see what’s going on with Escalating Quickly.

Escalating Quickly is so much fun to listen to. Ten Foot Pole have always courted darker subject material and with this new record they are fully embracing dark humour. Lines like “the years will go by, your puppies will die” in opener Everything Dies and the entirety of Don’t Be A Dick could be as at home in a Guttermouth record as they are here. Escalating Quickly is what I’d call a ‘next gen’ skate punk album. Although this is vintage Ten Foot Pole under the hood, they’ve not been afraid to indulge in the benefits of modern recording. Listening to Numb you can hear a lot of extra bells and whistles added including (ironically) retro sounding keyboards amongst a lot of extra vocal effects. On the whole, this leads to this being the best sounding Ten Foot Pole album to date. Now, I’m sure the purists may begrudge all the extra production but I’m a big fan of progress and personally don’t think it does anything but enhance my experience.

Things aren’t all jokes and crude references here and there’s also a very Ten Foot Pole style message of positivity throughout. Songs like the excellent Long Night and Unbroken speak to the difficulty and hopelessness we can feel in our lives but that we can find the strength to carry on. Very powerful stories to be telling in these days when mental health is a topic that’s starting to be taken more seriously than ever. Album finisher Goodbye Sunny Days may be more standard in terms of subject material, being a song about lost relationships, but it is a beautiful acoustic track and the perfect chilled ending to a rollercoaster of an album.

In conclusion, this is an exceptional return to the fray for Ten Foot Pole. Escalating Quickly takes a true to the roots formula and upgrades the sound and quality to reflect a band that has grown with the times in the 15 years they’ve been away from our ears. Massively recommended – expect to see this high on my end of year greatest albums list.

Stream and download Escalating Quickly here:
https://disconnectdisconnectrecords.bandcamp.com/album/escalating-quickly

Like Ten Foot Pole here: https://www.facebook.com/tenfootpole/

This review was written by Dan Peters.