There is something truly special about listening to a really really good record…. It is like time is paused , and all you can feel and hear is the music. Boston based Paper Tigers have offered up their extraordinary debut record “Charmer” to the universe and it’s phenomenal.

You can listen to “Charmer” on Spotify Here and on Apple Music Here

It is highly appropriate that the treasure trove of wondrous rock music on “Charmer” is being released on a Tuesday. There was a time when all the great and important music was released on a Tuesday. Paper Tigers are a throwback and their debut is both great and important.

Paper Tigers formed in Allston in 2019 and quickly weathered a global pandemic, a venue crisis in their home city, a growing national hostility to the arts and those who create it, and collective whirlwind of insanity that seems to mark each day. Charmer, and all its furious ambition, is the ultimate release for Paper Tigers, a burning exhale that follows a string of four EPs and several singles, including last year’s breakout “I Wish Someone Would Have Told Me This Sooner” (which secretly contained a snippet of the new album’s title track). -( If you are scoring at home we think containing a snippet of the new album’s title track is absolutely brilliant)

Charmer is a rock record with a pop polish, and a pop record with rock edge; the more the listener peels back each lyrical and sonic layer, tying together the band’s disparate sound that incorporate post-punk, grunge, Britpop, and American indie, the more reality’s grim nature starts to come into view.

If we’re being honest ( and trust we always are ) We are absolutely enthralled with Paper Tigers and their debut album “Charmer “ We haven’t felt this way since we first heard a certain band from Seattle in the 90’s

“We’re proud of this album,” declares Paper Tigers. “With each release, we pushed ourselves both in terms of songwriting and production and this was the culmination of everything we learned about both. It represents the very best we’re capable of and we wouldn’t change a thing about it. With every song we write or piece of art we create, we just hope it connects with our audience in some special way. This LP represents our most thought-out and effortful body of work to-date. We’re hoping it elevates our fan’s perspective of the band and that they’re drawn back to it, many times.”

Repeated listens is where the elements begin to shine: The razor-sharp guitarwork and production of Bjarki Guðmundsson; the heavy, absorbing basslines of Matthew Hughes; the thunderous drums and atmospheric percussion of Ben “Cutty” Cuthbert; and the sardonic vocals of Michael Medlock, a man with a street preacher urgency hellbent on warning the world both of the dangers within and an optimistic way out.

Paper Tigers are a band that is musically on a different level. Like highly skilled precision craftsmen , Paper Tigers have created an absolute masterpiece with their amazing debut album “Charmer”

From heralding the age of revolution and its dissemination through media (“Pariah”) to ‘90s
grunge-era conspiracy theories (“Soft Focus”), Charmer is a lyrically confrontational album as Medlock
registers and relays the world around him. As he sings in the swirling, paranoid album track
“The Drugs Are Kicking In”: “Modern living made life easy / But it also made us angrier.”

“The lyrics on Charmer are both anecdotal and narrative,” the band admits. “Sometimes Michael is singing from his own perspective and other times he’s writing fiction. His lyrics orbit around love, loss, personal life experiences and his hopes for the future.”

We honestly were consumed almost immediately with this record. Intoxicating melodies mix with flawless vocals , there isn’t a bad track on “Charmer” . We found ourselves singing along almost instantly. Standouts on “Charmer” include “Sandcastle”, “Animals” and the two scorching summer singles “Wedding Cake” and “Into That Good Night”

The storylines that emerge through the calculated noise are plentiful, and remain open to listener interpretation. But one aspect of “Charmer” that was made clear from the start was the ability to convey these songs in a precise and crystalline manner, made possible in part by work done at both Paper Tigers’ home studio at Cataclysmic Records in Brighton, and with recording engineer Alex Allinson at The Bridge Sound and Stage just across the Charles River in Cambridge.

“In the past, we’ve tried to do as much as we can by ourselves,” says Paper Tigers. “There was a time when we saw it as a way to speed up the learning curve of being a band. It would have been fun to go into a proper recording studio for the first EPs, but we needed to do all that homework and run into all the obstacles to progress as a band and songwriters. We met up with Alex Allinson at The Bridge and pitched the idea of tracking live versions of the songs in the studio, to capture drums. We ended up getting so much more than drums during that one-day session, thanks to Alex. He went above and beyond, made us feel comfortable, and was able to dial in the perfect sound in a matter of seconds. Having those great-sounding tracks from Alex made the process so much easier, and because of that, we could allocate more of our time to the creative side of production than before.”

We strongly feel that listening to music should be a memorable experience. Paper Tigers deliver a memorable musical experience with their impressive debut album “Charmer” that you won’t soon forget.