Nine albums, a couple of compilations and several other releases over a career that spans over 20 years have made Albany’s The Erotics one of the few bands I can say never disappoints. After last years EP ‘Stuck Between Venus and Mars’ we were promised something special and this is it – 13 tracks (9 new, 4 remastered versions of songs from the EP) plus a bonus cover of Celtic Frost’s ‘Cherry Orchards.’
We open with six shots of the new stuff, kicking off with the suitably raucous ‘Angel, Devil & Me’ which kicks ass from the onset , a frantic riff-rocker to set the blood racing.
That’s followed by the dark, down and dirty rock and roll of ‘Blood Of The Wasted’ that begins with a walk out into the New York night before the drums and guitar kick in to deliver a punky take on early Kiss. The barroom anthem ‘Things We Do In The Night’ adds cowbell and a suitably cool riff and chorus to draw you in to singing along and the straight up Rock and Roll of ‘Midnight Creatures’ is as gritty as it is sublime. This is The Erotics in the form of their lives!
The punky, spiky ‘Dirty Little Secret’ keeps the hooks coming and the all fired up ‘Steroids & Cocaine’ gets those heads banging before we’re reintroduced to the EP Tracks ‘Stop, Drop, & Roll’ a dirty stuttering ditty that builds on a huge riff before Mike Trash’s whiskey-soaked vocal gives a feel of vintage AC/DC to the murky mix; and ‘Nice Things’ which is a late night chant-along classic that really makes me think off all those East Coast proto-punk bands of the seventies washed through with the dirty sheen of eighties Rock and Roll revivalists like The Dog’s D’Amour. Mike Trash has always had the knack of landing a huge chorus and this is certainly one of his biggest!
More new tracks follow: the bump and grind of the attitude-laden ‘Ain’t Talkin’ To You’ and the whiskey-soaked rock and roller ‘Pretty Little Bomb’ which sandwich two more remastered tracks from the recent EP.
And those just happen to be two of my favourite tracks and ones which lead us towards the close of the album. ‘I Dismember You’ is a wonderful, fresh, sleazy trashy number, that really recalls Tyla’s vocals with The Dogs D’Amour. It’s the type of song that drew me to this band in the first place and they nail it like no other, with a typically chant-along refrain and tongue-in-cheek lyric. ‘Best Song Of The Night’ though is the curve-ball – it’s a song that, dare I say it, has a hint of ‘Every Rose has its Thorn’ about it, a cool, bluesy heartfelt ballad that works on every level. It might rather stick out on this release but there’s no disputing its a great song and the other side of Trash’s songwriting.
Closer ‘Only When I Bleed’ takes us out in style with a pacy Pop-Punk anthem made to sing along and stamp your feet and throw your arms around to. Its the song to start the party all over again.
Bonus Track ‘Cherry Orchards’ is indeed a cover of the Celtic Frost classic which of course always had that early Metallica meets Motley Crue chug to it,and it sounds remarkably at home here!
‘The Songs Remain Deranged’ is a late-night ‘destroy the neighbors and play it loud’ album, heavier and weightier than recent offerings. All in all spikier, punkier and dirtier than these guys have sounded in a while and a great way to re-fire the engines. The Erotics have done it again.
You can pre-order the album The Songs Remain Deranged directly from The Erotics here.
TRACKLISTING: 1) Angel, Devil, & Me | 2:) Blood Of The Wasted | 3:) Things We Do In The Night | 4:) Midnight Creatures | 5:) Dirty Little Secret | 6:) Steroids & Cocaine | 7:) Stop, Drop, & Roll | Nice Things | 9:) Ain’t Talkin’ To You | 10:)I Dismember You | 11:)Best Song Of The Night | 12:) Pretty Little Bomb | 13:) Only When I Bleed | 14:)Cherry Orchards (Bonus Track)
