This is a great Rock record and no one is more surprised that me to find it slip nicely and easily into my list of top releases of the year.
What’s in a name? When I think of Roxanne the first thing that comes to mind is the song by the Police or the film by Steve Martin, the former from the Seventies and the latter from the Eighties. And though I actually own a vinyl copy of Roxanne’s debut album from 1988 I still don’t think the band’s name did them too many favours, even at the height of Hair Metal.
Originally formed in the late 80’s, Roxanne gained some degree of commercial success with their self-titled debut album which saw two original songs charting on rock radio; ‘Cherry Bay’ and ‘Sweet Maria’, as well as a cover of Wild Cherry’s ‘Play That Funky Music’ which hit #63 on the Billboard singles charts before the band split after receiving next to no support from their label.
The problem was that ‘Roxanne’ was a really great album that deserved far more attention, not only containing those ‘chart-botherers’ but also a heap of other party rockers like ‘Can’t Stop Thinking’ and the ballad ‘Over You.’ And for a a label like Scotti Brothers who also had ‘Survivor’ in their stable you would have expected more, but then again they never did too much Rock over the years even when eighties Rock was at it’s MTV -fueled peak.
Fast forward 20 years and Krescendo Records re-released the 1988 debut with a digital remastering, and now here we are ten more years down the track, or thirty years since that debut with a new record – the aptly named ‘Radio Silence.’ Vocalist Jamie Brown said of it “We wanted to make a rock record that you’d want to crank in your car and drive fast with the windows down and I think we accomplished that!” and I couldn’t agree more.
Before we get to the review proper it’s interesting to note that the album was preceded by three music videos for ‘Super Bad’, ‘Someone To Kill’ and ‘Thin Blue Line’ and whilst I think there are better songs on here they give a fair representation of the range of styles that the band play with on this rather wonderful second album.
This is a great Rock record and no one is more surprised that me to find it slip nicely and easily into my list of top releases of the year. ‘Radio Silence’ features 11 tracks of great high energy classic rock and roll and whilst it wears many of its influences on its sleeve it somehow manages to sound strong and unified. The album also features special guest appearances by guitar legend George Lynch, King’s X front-man dUg Pinnick and Korn drummer Ray Luzier (all of course label-mates in the ‘KXM’ project).
Opening up with ‘Someone to Kill’ I was immediately struck by the thought that this is the song you’d get if you merged Foreigner and Queen, and that Queen comparison flows through to the next song ‘Girls Alright’ which features guitar that channels Brian May at his finest every time you hear the crispness of the guitar. It’s an opening that left me struggling for superlatives!
We get Funkier fare thrown into the mix for the net two selections ‘Super Bad’ and ‘Thin Blue Line.’ The first really introduces that crawling Blues feel in the verses before rolling into a funky chorus and George Lynch adds some nice guitar licks for good measure. ‘Thin Blue Line’ keeps that Bluesy feel but is more in the vein of Bad Company or dare I say The Scream,who the band later cover, there’s that cool funky grind though too that really grounds the song. Four tracks in and I’ve already decided that this album is already rather special, but there’s plenty more to come.
The unlikely-titled ‘Broken Chandeliers’ comes next and it’s wonderfully uplifting both lyrically and sonically.
A cover of “Man in the Moon’ follows, it’s a song originally recorded by California contemporaries ‘The Scream’ the band fronted by John Corabi, it’s a song that vocalist Jamie Brown is co-credited with on the Screams’ ‘Let It Scream’ debut album along with ‘I Don’t Care.’ It’s a great cover of a great song by a great band and obviously included here for that connection, but it’s far from my favourite,amongst this wonderful new music.
Things get edgier and harder for the wonderfully juxtaposed ‘Go Fuck Yourself’ and then we trip back in time for the waltz of ‘Without Us’ which features some wonderful harmonies. It in turn gives way to the wonderful Bluesy strut of ‘Quarter to Four’ and the wonderfully melodic rocker ‘I Don’t Want To Live This Way’ that has me thinking of bands like Bad English at their best.
That leaves only ‘First Mistake’ to have the final say and it does a fine job of closing out a truly great collection of songs riding on a quirky guitar line that rides through the melody to give it a unique flavour. It’s one of those songs that grows on you with each play.
A serious contender for not just the best comeback of the year, but best of the year, period.
