Sometimes you deliberately don’t read the press for a review and other times you just lose it in the pile of ‘stuff’ that tends to accumulate around you. I dare say the release will find itself someday and file itself appropriately.
This is good, it’s bluesy barroom rock with a modern edge and cool. From the swing, sway and swagger of opener ‘Keith Richards’ to the all to soon closer ‘Real TV’ just five tracks in. As EP’s go it ticks the biggest box: ‘Please give me more’. Also unlike some releases it does give you a decent take on the band. Sure there’s an element of post grunge here, Stone Temple Pilots are a worthwhile reference point, but with less pretention than their later releases. Some might hear a little QOTSA but I hear more anachronistic influences.
If you like the opener then ‘Green Ambitions’ backs it up nicely, it’s got that same swing and a little more punkish urgency and that same great guitar sound. ‘Playing God’ that follows is the ace in the hole though, laid back, shimmering, and shot through with, rather than resting on, some cool blues riffs. This is really cool stuff.
More straightforward rock gets a look in on ‘Count My Blessings’ a nice rock track (still with that shot of Blues) that I’ll bet has some grunt live and we close with probably my least favourite track ‘Real TV’ a modern rocker that has less subtlety than everything else here. It’s not a bad track at all in isolation, but the odd man out here. I liked this very much, you’ll like it too.
Buy it now and feed Canadian music…
