Best known for his own band Prophets of Addiction and his stint in 80’s Glam legends Pretty Boy Floyd Lesli Sanders latest solo release may only be 5 tracks long but it packs a punch well above its weight.
Sanders own material over the years has been what you might term Sleaze Rock, that gritty dirtier take on the Hair Metal of the late eighties. For me there has also been more than a passing nod and reference to Tyla the frontman of the legendary UK band The Dogs D’Amour. The Dogs themselves of course released an acoustic mini-album between their breakthrough album ‘In The Dynamite Jet Saloon’ and ‘Errol Flynn’ titled ‘A Graveyard of Empty Bottles’.
This is the sort of territory we are looking at on ‘My eyes Are Greener…’ – stripped to the bone, simply arranged songs that have nowhere to hide. It’s a brave move indeed, and as Steve Marriott once said “if you can play a song just voice and guitar and touch someone that’s all you need”.
HERE FOR YOU immediately brings to mind Tyla, it’s a mournful simply strummed acoustic number, and Lesli sounds beneath that nice refrain. It’s a great ballad and the simplicity is a real large part of its magic and appeal. It’s one of the best songs I’ve heard from Sanders acoustic or electric and you find yourself so glad it’s devoid of the full band treatment. MY STATE OF MUSIC that follows adds a piano and takes away the guitar, it’s a slow barroom jaunt, antique, faded, almost downcast but still full of grace and style. Like rod Stewart met Elton John in the 70’s and threw down a demo at the end of a long stoned night. And like all the best songs you feel you’ve heard it before, painted as it is in stark contrast, just keys and vocals.
ATMOSPHERE keeps the mood low, a guitar gentle strum, plaintive, acoustic, breezey and all bare bones. Again it has that taste of the 70’s barroom rhythm and blues channelled via The Dogs D’Amour or The Faces. A simple tale of regret that is wonderfully evocative, sparsely decorated with keys and guitar and very well executed.
THROW ME A ROPE for me veers nearer The Faces at their most introspective, it’s similarly downcast and again just keys and acoustic guitar really help set off the quality of the songs construction. Four songs in you wish that this EP was an LP and these songs were rising warm and fresh from black vinyl.
AS WE FALL closes ‘My eyes Are Greener on the Other Side’ with a dark ballad that again has you thinking of the blackest moments of The Dogs D’Amour’s ‘Graveyard of Empty Bottles’ it’s another great song, with dynamics coming from both vocals and the heavily strummed guitar that counterpoints the delicate refrain. There’s a certain stripped ‘Western’ flavour to the songs here, not Americana at all but an alternate take on ‘The West’ more influenced by movies and Saturday TV serials than the fiddle or the banjo,and you can almost hear the cowboy boots walking past in the saloon as Lesli croons his lament.
This is a really cool EP: lyrically adept and at times incredibly deep; and though its tone is mainly torn between regret, loss and heartbreak it’s a strangely comforting listen. The bare bones approach too is a brave move, songs of lesser quality would so easily have been found out. For me this is Lesli sanders finest hour… so far.
