My first impression of Magic Bullets was what the hell is this mess? The first track was all over the place. Then I realised that as I’d opened up numerous web pages which had all started up tracks from Hungry and the Hunted so I was listening to 4 songs at the same time, what an idiot, especially when you then consider I had iTunes on random so the next track was a Terry Pratchet audio book next time I’ll ask my eight year old’s help.
But this initial impression added to the increasing clarity of the opening track ‘This Time’ as I stopped the concurrent songs didn’t have a negative effect, on the contrary it made me realise that this was something special with its high temp blues sound that Eric or Bruce would be proud of.
The surprises keep on coming with ‘Bite The Bullet’, which has punk tattooed right through the middle of it expressing the anger and frustration of an British Muslim having to live through the media circus surrounding our misguided governments alleged ‘War on Terror’.
This mix of East London attitude, riffs from the blues song book and attitude from Punk isn’t something that most bands was ever considered but it works but only when there is significant talent behind it.
‘Night Comes A Crawling’ has some serious Bob Dylan undertones if he was 1st generation British with the attitude of The Clash with blues heritage.
If to add to my technical woes, the tracks listed in iTunes don’t match the sleeve notes but for me, ‘Hungry And The Hunted’ stands out as the killer track especially as the guitar solo merits a mention in the lyrics.
As the album is a magi-mix style blending blues riffs, punk attitude completed with political undertone lyrics that makes Magic Bullet so unique. To stand out from the crowd you need something unique, a catch that marks you above the rest but I never in my wildest dreams thought it would come in the guise of Hungry and the Hunted but I’m glad it did.