THE BACKGROUND
I’m not kidding last year we got in excess of 12,000 review applications for new music. This year by June we’d had over 14,000 and as our readership grows the numbers increase day by day. It makes reviewing bands that really deserve your attention so hard, so what we try to do initially is let everyone know about as many new releases as we can especially from bands without a label behind them. Last year I reviewed 217 albums (or more than one every day and a half) which I don’t think is too bad when that entails listening to almost three times as many albums. That number grows every year.
Plastic Tears are a band that get it right – they know what I like to listen to and they kept in my ear until I caved in, though the reality of the situation is that I’d always been gong to review this album, and it was just that I had a huge run of big releases and big interviews that never seemed to ease up that delayed it.
Why review this band? It’s simple really – for me at least they have something to say and not only that they have a publicist that never stopped reminding me! That and they sent the required download and images that mean that I don’t have to go looking elsewhere for images and details to promote your work! You can’t imagine the number of bands that either just attach the MP3s or add nothing in the press release about why we might be interested in the band, or even give an idea of what they sound like (so we can send it to the most likely reviewer). Really it’s simple – add the files, a cover picture, potted bio and something that is gong to make me want to listen!
First and foremost the thing I like about this album is the energy, the punky guitar lines and the fact that they have a singer who phrases his vocals like Michael Monroe the singer of the Hanoi Rocks. And therein lies the rub, I’ll bet there are a thousand releases this year I’d love to review but in the sheer numbers of submissions many just never get heard.
THE REVIEW
Why is this album worth a review? Because its got a fucking huge amount of spirit!
Opening with a few straight forward rockers in ‘Dark Passenger’ and ‘Secret Society” I’m immediately impressed by the groundwork but even more impressed by the punkier ‘Iris kick’ which has me thinking of the big days of Finland’s finest – the Hanoi Rocks…
That feeling is kept on the boil, maybe even more so by ‘Midnight Date’ which is all youthful enthusiasm and ‘in your face’ attitude and ‘Rhythm Rider’ which keeps that punk kick going but with a cool Sleazy breakdown and dark chorus.
‘Nuclear Nights’ and ‘Blue Angel’ just make you recall an early Hanoi Rocks. They’re both great songs, replete with hooks and melody and those wonderfully simplistic yet essential bass and drum drives. But that’s it – glimpses of the past recycled here are sonically true and beautifully done, but it’s what they choose to do when realise that they can run with those ideas that matter isn’t it?
As a result the second half of the album sounds lot freer and truer starting with ‘Day By Day’ which really hits the spot with its storytelling before ‘Headless Army’ brings all of the promise together in a singe song and ‘Miss Stumbling Legs’ adds a bit more grunt and attitude and makes you think that these kids can do anything. It’s a real balls-out rock and roller that is up with my favourites here. Closer ‘Universal Kid’ keeps that thought going and is another rocker that keeps on giving.
I love this album most of all because it’s fun and its unfettered, it my not be the best produced album you’ll hear and the vocals may not sound just like you want them (but as far as I’m concerned vocals are about personality not ticking boxes, and there’s plenty of personality here) but this is an album that hits you in the right place and that does what rock and roll should do – move your feet and raise your glasses, and that’s more than enough for me.
Apologies to the band for adding a ‘how to submit an album for review guide to the start of their review!’