There’s a frenetic soulful and funky hard rock sound to Märvel’s opening salvo ‘All For The Glory’ it’s a huge song and one that I can guarantee will leave you wanting more wondering where these guys can take it! The answer comes with the equally frantic ‘Keep Pushin” which is a huge cover of the REO Speedwagon classic given an ‘up’ in tempo and bags more soul. I already love this band by this point!
I’ll let you into a little secret now – this is a covers album and that first song I was a little disingenuous in not mentioning was penned by Kiss but I thought it best not to give the game away from the off as this could well be the best covers record you’ve ever heard. The secret is that this isn’t a cover album of huge songs – just great ones and I must admit I was surprised as hell that the opener was a Kiss song (Losing touch with Kiss way before ‘Sonic Boom’).
What you get is great variety but also the feeling that the collection sound just like Märvel’s own material, I’d never heard ‘Ten O’ Clock Postman’ either but it sounds just as great – like magical Garage Power Pop. As it turned out the original is a disco song by Swedish 80’s popsters Secret Service, and the cover sounds a thousand times better!
Even the songs that you think couldn’t be topped sizzle – Monster Magnet’s ‘Power Trip’ is wonderful; rocking out, adding piano and kicking some serious ass! ‘Girl Goodbye’ by Toto, already a cool song, is given a huge lift in pace and some sizzling guitar and f**k me if Dire straits ‘Sultans of Swing’ hasn’t been turned into a wild-eyed retro Glam-rock stomper! This is brilliant! How dare they! The hairs on my arms stood up for this one!
Another song I wasn’t familiar with at all was ‘El Camino Real’ by Lee Dresser which here comes out like a hot-wired 60’s surf pop slice of magic. It’s followed by a dirty stomping version of ‘Can’t Shake Loose’ that I must admit to owning. The original by Russ Ballard was penned for Agnetha Fältskog (ABBA) and her first English language solo album ‘Wrap Your Arms Around Me’ -it certainly didn’t sound like this!
Oddly it’s the high energy of Dennis Linde’s Elvis-popularized ‘Burning Love’ (Elvis’ own version was a cover of the Arthur Alexander 1972 original – and ironically as he covered this one rather than wrote it Arthur himself was covered by the likes of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Elvis Presley, Ike and Tine Turner and Robert Plant) that is the least satisfying track here, maybe because it’s also the most ubiquitous song here?
The album closes with another familiar song the Rick derringer/Johnny Winter ‘Rock N Roll, Hoochie Koo’ which may well be the most covered song here – and Marvel do a great job in maybe even topping the likes of Suzi Quatro and Danger Danger with their incendiary cover.
Märvel has been an active band since 2002 and consists of The King (guitars and vocals), The Burgher (Bass) and The Vicar (Drums) they are Golden Gods and this album is essential! Rock and Roll!
9/10