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Take You Home. Scarlet Rebels
'You Could Be Mine'. I think that Guns 'N' Roses' second best song, after 'Sweet Child Of Mine', sums op Take You Home quite nicely. Scarlet Rebels' latest single holds it all and the good thing it's almost as good as well. There's so much energy balled into a couple of minutes that I can imagine the recording studio short circuiting a couple of times while the band was trying its best to record Take You Home. The drums are superdry in sound, yet over present, driving the whole team relentlessly forward. The bass and rhythm guitar fill up everything else at the bottom. This allows the lead guitar, including the overdubs, to race all over the song. Finish it off with a memorable vocal melody, allowing people to sing along with ease and we're there. The interlude let us all take a well-deserved break, band and listeners alike. The solo that follows compensates every second of the break in double time. Where's my towel? I need to wipe the sweat off my brow now.
Do Ya Feel My Love? Stereophonics
The Stereophonics are around for longer than I can remember. They were there a couple of decades ago and remained there, but you will not find a lot on the band in almost 21 years of WoNo Magazine. The band never appealed to me. A support slot for Red Hot Chili Peppers around the turn of the millennium did not convince me at all. (Neither did RHCP live) And then Do Ya Feel My Love? came on the radio recently and I pricked up my ears. Having listened a few times I know why they did, Stereophonics does a Robbie Williams of circa 20 years ago, when he was in a rocking mood, and throws in some extra rock elements for good measure. The result is a great rock song with a nice enough melody to catch my ear without any difficulty. The layers in the music that are added, the little details that are worked in between them makes the song stand out even more. It took Stereophonics something like 25 years but I have noticed and don't mind sharing it with the world.
Can you write an a-political song and give it the title Un-American? A good question, as that was Jeff Crosby's intention. At the same time he does respond to the dichotomy that seems to run through the American society nowadays. Looking at it from a distance it is even worrying when it becomes hard for people to agree on anything.
Jeff Crosby has written a fine song, an American country rock song as they can only make them in the U.S. Not a lot has to happen to make them sound good. Over an acoustic guitar, several electrical parts are played, all giving the song another and thus deeper impact. My ears have to work hard to hear it all. With the drums and bass providing the backup for the rest, things turn out just fine.
"Looking from the bleachers ... we should be dancing." Looking to the turmoil from the cheap seats, while we could have been dancing together and having fun. Perhaps that is the solution Jeff Crosby provides. All people who engage in something fun together tend to become friends and perhaps are even allowed to think a little differently about some topics. Most likely they will experience that they have more in common. So let's go dancing and have some fun and why not start with Un-American as the starting song?.
Julian Taylor has released nine records, is working on his tenth. 100 Proof is my first song by the Canadian artist ever. We have moved from U.S. country rock into country/singer-songwriter territory. With a mildly dark voice he croons this cover, written by Tyler Ellis, a guitar teacher in Toronto and friend of Julian Taylor. Just imagine two guitars and a bass softly doing their thing in the background. Fingerpicking on the one, a hybrid style on the second guitar. If Ellis taught Taylor, he can be quite proud, as the guitar playing is excellent. The song as such is nothing outstandingly special. There have been dozens in this style that came before it. It is certainly a nice addition and just as nice to listen to. Sometimes that is just enough.
For some bands the 1980s never ended. Warm Graves, a one person band from Leipzig in Germany, only started in 2012, released one record in 2014, 'Ships Will Come', certainly wallows in the darkest side of the 1980s and perhaps quite rightly so. How come, I come to this observation? After a few decades where there was no limit to progress and economic growth, ostrich style progress or not, and a bump or glitch here and there along the way, the world has woken up to a new reality. The end of resources, deforestation, a limit to pollution, gaps on growth. The bleakness faced by many because of the outer limits of sustainability that have been reached, do call for a style of music reflecting it. Like the 1980s reflected the end of the world as we know it through nuclear doom. If so, Warm Graves certainly fills in the void left by the demise of all those doom bands close to 40 years ago. The way of singing, the synths, the dry electronic drums, it all breaths doom. The sparse solo notes in the last part of Neon are the only, if ever so faint, rays of light Warm Graves shares with its listeners. Jonas Wehner, who is Warm Graves, shares a dark, bleak message, yet ever so convincing.
Wout de Natris
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