Heavy Tiger man!
They’ve got more stomp than Godzilla on the rampage, they’re as trashy as a New York Dolls after party, and certainly as glam as a seventies episode of top of the pops.
Glitter sounds like Josie and the Pussycats brought up on a diet of The Sweet during the day and Max’s Kansas City at night.
The Runaways for Generation Z?
You better believe it.
Throw in some Hanoi Rocks, Hellacopters and Cheap Trick and it’s a recipe for a glitter bomb.
Light the fuse and step back because when this goes off it will start the party to end all parties.
Do you like a bit of sugar with your rock and roll sir?
No problem. There’s enough sprinkled throughout Glitter that after ingesting it you will be screaming at the ADHD kid to keep up.
Not that any of this should give the impression that the album is lightweight.
It’s not.
It’s solid from start to finish. A quality rock and roll album that never considers for a moment that it needs to pander to trends.
Guitar bands are coming back; I would bet my hat on it, and I love my hat.
Suzi Quatro must have felt a disturbance in the force when Glitter was released.
They’ve got more stomp than Godzilla on the rampage, they’re as trashy as a New York Dolls after party, and certainly as glam as a seventies episode of top of the pops.
Glitter sounds like Josie and the Pussycats brought up on a diet of The Sweet during the day and Max’s Kansas City at night.
The Runaways for Generation Z?
You better believe it.
Throw in some Hanoi Rocks, Hellacopters and Cheap Trick and it’s a recipe for a glitter bomb.
Light the fuse and step back because when this goes off it will start the party to end all parties.
Do you like a bit of sugar with your rock and roll sir?
No problem. There’s enough sprinkled throughout Glitter that after ingesting it you will be screaming at the ADHD kid to keep up.
Not that any of this should give the impression that the album is lightweight.
It’s not.
It’s solid from start to finish. A quality rock and roll album that never considers for a moment that it needs to pander to trends.
Guitar bands are coming back; I would bet my hat on it, and I love my hat.
Suzi Quatro must have felt a disturbance in the force when Glitter was released.
They say that there is nothing new in the world. Everything is a rehash of something that has come before, and all artists can do is breathe new life into a mixed bag of what they can pilfer from the past.
There may be some truth to that, but who cares when New York power pop quintet The Dives are the band dipping into their broad influences and coming up with the Everybody’s Talkin’ ep.
One minute they sound like Stiff records revivalists, and you know what they say about that ‘if it ain’t Stiff, it ain’t worth a fuck’ and then the next it is The Knack filtered through the punk pop of the nineties.
And let’s not ignore the tip of the hat to Cheap Trick too.
These boys ain’t slacking.
As introductions go then this ep is as fine a place to start as any.
With so much good music surfacing at the moment it is difficult to elevate one particular act to the top of the list that you should check out, but The Dives would be in the top five.
Website
Over the course of seven previous studio albums the Afghan Whigs have never stood still. Every release has seen the band evolving.
And now with In Spades they have moved fractionally forward again.
The brass and orchestration paired with some sublime guitar work is a heady mix, but with the increasingly more mature sounding vocals of Gregg Dulli the album just goes off the charts.
It’s as ambitious as anything that they have conjured into existence during their thirty and a bit year career.
Tight and lean the band is cementing a reputation as being one of the greatest survivors from the alt rock scene of the late eighties and early nineties.
No one sits Afghan Whigs in the corner baby.
They were never easily categorized, never a band that could be slipped into a genre box
Instead they had to be forced into the box while kicking and screaming and clawing to get back out.
And now they have reached the point that they have left behind any attempts to try to limit them with a genre tag.
They are the Afghan Whigs.
No more, no less, and instantly recognisable as such. They are the kings of their self made scene, the singular entity in their soulful rock universe.
This is without a shadow of a doubt a masterful career high.
Where to go next from In Spades though? That is the question
And now with In Spades they have moved fractionally forward again.
The brass and orchestration paired with some sublime guitar work is a heady mix, but with the increasingly more mature sounding vocals of Gregg Dulli the album just goes off the charts.
It’s as ambitious as anything that they have conjured into existence during their thirty and a bit year career.
Tight and lean the band is cementing a reputation as being one of the greatest survivors from the alt rock scene of the late eighties and early nineties.
No one sits Afghan Whigs in the corner baby.
They were never easily categorized, never a band that could be slipped into a genre box
Instead they had to be forced into the box while kicking and screaming and clawing to get back out.
And now they have reached the point that they have left behind any attempts to try to limit them with a genre tag.
They are the Afghan Whigs.
No more, no less, and instantly recognisable as such. They are the kings of their self made scene, the singular entity in their soulful rock universe.
This is without a shadow of a doubt a masterful career high.
Where to go next from In Spades though? That is the question
The band must be getting tired of Buzzcocks references by now, but it is difficult not to name drop the legends in the same breath.
Mainly because it is so obvious that it’s Cyanide Pills who are next in line for that melodic punk rock throne.
In fact ‘Oi, Shelley, Diggle. Move your arses. It’s time to pass the baton on.’
Let’s not beat about the bush here.
And let’s not ignore the references to The Boys in what the band do too.
On I don’t remember it sounds like a spiky rendition of a Boys classic with the added bonus of it being a socially conscious anthem for the times.
That’s not the only track to slap back at the current state of play in the world, but no one should consider for a second that the band are devolving into the stereotype of the anti establishment punk band as they are definitely not relinquishing their tightly held grip on a melody and a hook.
Snotty and defiant and a must have for any self respecting malcontent with a song in their heart sums up Sliced and Diced.
You want a punk rock contender for 2017? Then look no further.
No comments:
Post a Comment