This is a review of "Tough Love" recorded by Pulled Apart by Horses. The review was written by Chris Wood in 2012.

The deluxe reissue of 'Tough Love' by Pulled Apart by Horses hits stores on 10th of December 2012. It is basically the original version of the album plus demos from the album sessions and older b-sides from previous singles.

The original album won rave reviews on release this January, due in no small part to the two excellent singles 'V.E.N.O.M' which showcases their powerful live sound mixing Black Sabbath riffs and incorporating a section from Mansun's 'Shotgun' to great effect. Second single 'Wolfhand' continues in the same exciting vein with heavy riffs and ethereal lead guitar parts mixing together well with lots of stops and starts and changes of pace. However after these two excellent tracks the album does tend to tail off into a formula of frenetic pace, heaviness and screaming.

There is absolutely no doubt that this is one talented rock band and the performances are tight throughout but I would have liked to have heard more proggy twists and turns as displayed in their earlier material. The album tracks sound akin to early Nirvana, bits of Motorhead and a smidgen of Killing Joke's rhythm section. The last track on the album is another stunner though called 'Everything Dipped in Gold' which is similar in quality to the first two tracks.

The second disc in this expanded collection includes a cover of Lana Del Rey's 'Blue Jeans' which the band first recorded for Fern Cotton's Radio One show. After this there are various b-sides and demos which will be of interest to hardcore fans as they were recorded in the band's basement during writing sessions for the album.

Overall a good solid album with some excellent tracking performances coupled with distinguished and meaty rock production from Foo Fighters and Pixies producer Gil Norton, which captures the band sounding as good as they do live.