This is the sort of music that can make the young pick up those guitars and the old remember how great Rock and Roll is eternal.
The Dead Daisies celebrates their ten year anniversary in 2023, it’s also three years since Glenn Hughes jumped on board the collective taking the band down to a four-piece for the first time. The pandemic of course may have pushed back the release of Hughes debut and 5th studio album ‘Holy Ground’ as well as his live debut with the band but its looks like in 2022 there’s no stopping them. This year so far we’ve had a series of live tracks starting with ‘Rise Up’ from the ‘Live from Daisyland EP’ and as we approach the US Fall Tour it’s finally time for the new record ‘Radiance’.
The first taster and title-track ‘Radiance’ hit back on May 27th just prior to the EU Summer Tour followed by ‘Shine On’ on July 8th but now it’s time for the big one – the new 10 track LP!
When the needle hits the groove for ‘Face Your Fear’ and the guitar bursts in, your know that 2022, already a great year for rock and roll, is going to get even better. There’s a determined thrust to ‘Face Your Fear’ that maintains the swagger of the Corabi years and adds that cool ‘Deep Purple meets Whitesnake’ slow burn bluesy rock that is at once timeless and primal. This is the sort of music that can make the young pick up those guitars and the old remember how great Rock and Roll is eternal.
The slow build to ‘Hypnotize Yourself’ and the jagged and forceful chorus that punctuates it, is all power and passion. It’s a song that sees Hughes at his simmering best and whilst the sound may be anachronistic I mean that in the most positive of ways – built in the years when Rock and Roll ruled the world rather than stale or outdated. Let’s face it who amongst us wouldn’t you want to be looking back at a glorious past and casting towards a wonderful future after the last few years we’ve had. If you love your Classic British Blues rock and all the heat and swagger that generates then you will love this.
I guess I need not tell most of you about the next two tracks: the wonderful ‘Shine On’ (not a Humble Pie cover) the second single which bursts out of the tracks to complete that wonderful ‘three shots of rock’ opening to the record. It’s a great song but I must admit as a choice for a single it has some rather stiff competition on here. It is followed here by the previous single release, the chugging rock and roll crawl of ‘Radiance’.
‘Born to Fly’ which closes out side one of the vinyl opens with drums which are quickly shot through with guitars and an active riff that backs Hughes vocal as we slide rather than soar into a wonderfully uplifting refrain to close out the record. Half way in it already looks like another winner from The Dead Daisies.
‘Kiss the Sun’ has a wonderfully deep groove, and it’s rather a departure from what we’ve has so far, well at least initially, before a wonderfully lithe chorus lets that sun in. ‘Courageous’ adds a kick of funk to slide in bed with with the rock and roll, and a couple of songs in it’s clear that the ‘second side’ of the new record sounds a bit more like a Hughes-driven beast.
‘Cascade’ has the kind of thrust and stomp you can feel coming before you see it and is a wonderfully assured ride but the real standout for me of the second half of the album is ‘Not Human’ which just gets it all right: a amid-tempo rocker with dynamic lighting, intrigue and which makes you feel that you just boarded a rollercoaster and simultaneously forgot to check the seat belt because of that nagging doubt you left the gas on!
And that sadly just leaves the one remaining track: ‘Roll On’ another of the real gems is a stripped back rocker that allows Hughes to shine: soulful, heart wrenching and wonderfully orchestrated it’s a song I could see bothering the charts if those things matter any more. Needless to say it’s another great record from The Dead Daisies which at times hits the real high watermark. Live on stage I can only imagine these sounding even bigger.
8.5 / 10
Tracklisting:
01. Face Your Fear 4:09
02. Hypnotize Yourself 3:50
03. Shine On 2:59
04. Radiance 4:03
05. Born to Fly 3:19
06. Kiss The Sun 3:23
07. Courageous 3:31
08. Cascade 4:07
09. Not Human 4:14
10. Roll On 3:10
New Line-Up:
Glenn Hughes (Deep Purple) – bass, vocals
Doug Aldrich (Whitesnake, Dio) – guitars
Brian Tichy (Whitesnake, Foreigner) – drums
David Lowy (Red Phoenix, Mink) – guitars