''Growing Pains'' is the debut

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

from the

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

alternative rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from Popular culture, mainstre ...

band

Dinosaur Pile-Up Dinosaur Pile-Up are an English alternative rock band formed in late 2007. Hailing from Leeds, West Yorkshire. Current members are lead vocalist, lead singer and electric guitar, guitarist Matt Bigland, drum kit, drummer Mike Sheils and bass gu ...

. The album was released for CD,

vinyl Vinyl may refer to: Chemistry * Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a particular vinyl polymer * Vinyl cation, a type of carbocation * Vinyl group, a broad class of organic molecules in chemistry * Vinyl polymer, a group of polymers derived from vinyl m ...

and digital download on 4 October 2011 on the Friends vs Records label.

Background

The whole album was recorded solely by lead singer and guitarist

Matt Bigland Dinosaur Pile-Up are an English alternative rock band formed in late 2007. Hailing from Leeds, West Yorkshire. Current members are lead singer and guitarist Matt Bigland, drummer Mike Sheils and bassist Jim Cratchley. Their past members include ...

in a homemade studio in Bridlington between late 2009 and early 2010. Also around this time, Steve Wilson (drums) and Tom Dornford-May (bass) left the band to pursue other projects. This meant whilst Matt was recording ''Growing Pains'' he had to bring in new members Harry Johns (bass) and Mike Shiels (drums). The album was released 4 October 2010. In September 2009, an early version of "All Around the World" was featured in the video game '' Colin McRae: Dirt 2''.

Reviews

The reviews for ''Growing Pains'' have been moderate to favorable. ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...

'' rated ''Growing Pains'' a 7/10, saying that "DP-U don’t give the most fleeting of shits about anything even remotely modern. Having said that, seeing as most of the attention focused on them thus far has focused on their being either (kindly) grunge revivalists or (unkindly) Nirvana copyists, it’s worth making clear that ‘Growing Pains’ is significantly better than either description suggests. Sure, there's more than a hint of the Cobain in the ragged guitars and slightly self-centred lyrical conceits, but rather than just aping Nirvana they instead share similar influences – particularly Pixies and Melvins – as well as update the mid-’90s college rock sound that Archers Of Loaf, Guided By Voices and Built To Spill made their own." ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' gave the album 4/5 stars, saying, "Growing Pains is part Nirvana with the confrontation dialled down, part Foo Fighters with the punkishness turned up. It's great, rowdy fun, though, and nothing gets in the way of the tunes: Never That Together keeps teasing the listener with a brief lift from the Beatles' Please Please Me, and former singles Mona Lisa, My Rock'n'Roll and Traynor should have been hits." ''AddictMusic.com'' gave the album 3/5 stars and have stated, "On the album there is only one track that leaves the relentless guitar chugging behind and opts for a softer direction – ‘Hey You’. It is a shame because ‘Hey You’ is very beautiful, and shows the guys do have musical talent. More importantly it shows they are not afraid to deviate from their archetypal sound, yet for some reason they choose not to". The review also lists 'Birds and Planes', 'Never That Together' and 'Maybe Its You' as favorites and says, "Dinosaur Pile-Up have huge potential and they are definitely ones to look out for in the future, but ‘Growing Pains’ is just a little too repetitive to make it more than just another alt-rock album."

Track listing

All songs written and composed by Matt Bigland.

Personnel

– vocals, guitar * Mike Sheils – drums * Jim Cratchley – bass, vocals

References

{{Authority control 2011 debut albums Dinosaur Pile-Up albums