ALBUM REVIEWS
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ALBUM REVIEWS |
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The Elvis Suicide
SWEETHEARTS COWBOYS IN PAIN RECORDS 18.05.09 @www.vanguard-online.co.uk
The Elvis Suicide have no qualms over singing songs about ‘girls and feelings and stuff’. Indeed vocalist/guitarist Chris Devotion states as part of their manifesto that ‘If it’s good enough for Hank Williams, it’s good enough for me’. The band follow the great punk tradition of using amusing made up band member names – as well as Devotion, there’s ‘Rough Monk’ on guitar; and someone calling themselves ‘The Ladies Choice’ on drums. The likes of Poly Styrene from X-ray Spex have a lot to answer for…. This is quite literally a mini-album – its 7 tracks hurtle along in an extremely lean 11 minutes. With a running time like that you’d expect an onslaught of straight to the point three-chord thrashes. And you’d be right in the most part. However, opening track ‘Song For A Girl’ is surprisingly more late period Replacements alt-rock drawl than a Ramones riff-fest. Don’t be thinking that the pogoing and gobbing session that you’d geared up for will be wasted though – as the next few tracks all fit the classic punk-pop template – crunching limited-chord riffs, frenetic crashing drums, energetic yet basic rhythms and yelled vocals. It’s like The Damned never went away – oh hang on, they haven’t they’re still touring. After all this full-on punk blitz final track ‘I Should Have Changed for You’ is a charming surprise. It’s an engagingly gentle ditty; which portrays an alcoholic’s regrets at not changing his hard-drinking ways. He laments how if he had then he would have got the girl, instead of ending up a lonely sad case. Although the middle clutch of tracks featured on this album are good fun, they don’t offer anything we haven’t heard a million times before. The first track and the last track, however suggest a glimpse of what this band might be capable of if they took their foot off the punk-rock pedal once in a while. www.theelvissuicide.com |
