It’s hard to get a take on 5ive Years Gone from opening track ‘Mary Jane’, it’s understated hard rock with a nice groove and nice melodies, and a little Classic Rock flavour, it’s pretty catchy stuff as is the following track ‘The Way You’re Pleased’ – it all indeed sounds rather nice.
It’s a shame then that the band name makes me sigh every time I type it, and it’s also a shame the album cover is so damned generic and the bio tells you next to nothing because there are some decent tunes here, some good musicians and the sound of a band that’s not that far off, because let’s face it you need every chance to get noticed these days and I think they’ve missed a trick here.
Musically though we’re solid – ‘All I know’ has a lovely Steve Miller Band feel to it, with a little funk and a lovely bounce that would make John Butler smile. But it’s far from boring even if it’s not exactly hard rocking. ‘Never Be the Same’ even has a little 60’s soul that comes across in the pre-chorus and a quirky Cheap Trick meets Joe Jackson body. If anything its almost too subtle.
‘Outta My Head’ is nice quirky pop, saved by the best guitar on the album, whilst ‘Scars of Love’ is nice and light and catchy enough with some lovely Bluesy guitar, and ‘Don’t Shoot Me’ adds the guitar that’s starred previously to the fore, it’s faster more aggressive and is the track here that hints at where these guys could go. Along with”All I Know’ its my favourite here.
We close out with the chug of ‘Promise’ that almost has a little Hanoi Rocks in there, and ‘Get Us Right’ adds a bit more grunt before ‘In The Heat of the Night’ is far gentler fare with a decent refrain.
Final track ‘Song 4 U’ is the stripped back ballad that works, and though its a million miles away from the Sunset Strip of the 80’s in other hands this would have been the big Poison-like ballad to woo the ladies. I much prefer it sounding like this.
Overall a promising debut with a lot to build on.
7/10
Tracklist
1. Mary Jane
2. The Way You’re Pleased
3. All I Know
4. Never Be The Same
5. Outta My Head
6. Scars Of Love
7. Don’t Shoot Me
8. Promise
9. Get Us Right
10. In The Heat Of The Night
11. Song 4 U