ALBUM REVIEW: Babylon Shakes – Exile to the Velveteen Lounge

HighVolMusic - Februry 1st 2019

Sleaze Rock is alive and well and all is good with the world.

Coming across like the bastard sons of Faster Pussycat, Babylon Shakes spit out of the speakers with ‘Making a Million’ a dirty, barroom sleazy grind with a broken down Aerosmith riff giving it a backbone and AC/DC guitars thrusting it along. It’s so authentically constructed we can only be back in 1987!

‘Sunset Striptease’ keeps that thought – injects some dirty blues riff, adds a party vibe; whilst ‘Sin Parade’ is more of a riff rocker and grinds out a deep groove. Its tracks like ‘No Pictures Please’ though that really recapture the Sunset Strip vibe, with its mid-tempo grind and invocation to sing along.

Some of you of course may already have a copy of this record released last year under the almost identical title of ‘Exile to the Velveteen Lounge Vol. 1’ and if you have you’re ahead of the game. HighVolMusic have made a great signing here that fits so well with their roster of vintage and classic bands.

Check out tracks like ‘Silver Tongue Devil’ and it’s dirty dive bar sleaze; or ‘Velveteen Libertine’ which looks back further taking a rough mix of Stones and ‘Smith and casting them into the future to arrive a little worse for wear on the steps of the Cathouse circa 1987.

It’s all good stuff, all great fun, just like the party never really ended.

About Mark Diggins 1924 Articles
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