‘Homewreckers and Heartbreakers’ originally came out the year before The Rockpit came into being ten years ago, but I imagine all fans of the band would be rather familiar with the album that saw their real resurgence after their initial reformation releases ‘This is Rock ‘N’ Roll’ (2001) and ‘Well Oiled’ (2004) which started 8 years after the band’s initial split. ‘Homewreckers…’ in truth put those two decent releases in the shade – it was just more ‘Rock and Roll’…
Looking back it’s rather easy to see ‘Homewreckers’ as the point the band got serious again and after a brief gap it was followed by an increasingly regular slew of real quality releases up until last years covers album ‘White Trash Blues’ which saw the band look back to their influences with a set of covers of blues classics by such artists as Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker and Chuck Berry.
Ten years on we revisit the album with a re-release including five bonus live tracks that we’ll get to later. As we’ve never reviewed this one before though let’s cast our minds back…
Opening with the mountain-high groove of ‘I Love This Dirty Town’ it’s immediately clear that the band really mean business and have lost none of their elemental charm as they slip seamlessly into their honky-tonk Faces-like grind before the barroom ballad ‘Mona Lisa Smiled’ slips in. As openings go it’s as impressive as anything they put together on their 80’s pomp and that itself sets the album aside from those first two post reformation releases.
As you dig deeper there’s something for everyone with the dirty melody of ‘Louder’ and the southern-tinged stab of ‘Hello’ before the epic seven minute ‘Blackwater’ really expands out a laid back southern-tinged groove and in the process takes the band to places you’d never expected them to venture to It’s also about Jack Daniels which is rather cool). After that impressive opening ‘Fear Within the Lie’ adds a little darkness whilst ‘One For the Road’ is a languid laid back rocker and barroom ballad ‘Late Night Saturday Call’ takes you to the pointy end.
At just 11 tracks on the original release things come to a climax far too soon with the chugging Faces-like groove of ‘Hall of Shame’, the melancholy ‘Take a look at Yourself’ and closer ‘Josephine’ which is just sheer unbridled Rock and roll.
This release of course adds five live tracks, though of course a whole live set would have been rather nice. The odd or interesting fact about these ‘live’ additions though is that only two of them come from the album itself whilst the rest come from the impressive (five years later) 2013 release ‘Beautiful Curse’ (surely due it’s on anniversary edition in 2023).
Kicking off the bonus tracks: ‘Too Much of a Good Thing’ is a damn fine live track and together with the would-be title track itself ‘Homewreckers and Heartbreakers’ and ‘Mother Mary’ make up the contingent from 2013’s ‘Beautiful Curse’. There are two tracks from the album itself the epic ‘Mona Lisa Smiled’ which needs no introduction and a huge live version of the album’s opening track ‘I Love This Dirty Town’ – both of course are songs that deservedly still spike the live show to this day.
As the legacy goes ‘Homewreckers and Heartbreakers ‘ ranks up there with the band’s best and this anniversary edition makes it a must for those that didn’t pick it up back in 2008. For those that did well it’s the usual dilemma of the completist – are five live tracks worth the extra dip into your reserves. We think so…
