A purer opening statement has seldom been made on a new album by a band. Cincinnati's Vacation makes it, filled with energy, melody and all it's got. If you want modern day rock and roll with its roots in the 1980s mixed with the in your face directness of punk, you will find it on Rare Earth.
Rare Earth is Vacation's ninth album and according to the accompanying bio its best. Now I cannot compare the previous eight to this one but on the basis of what I'm hearing I gladly accept the conclusion. How can an album by, a to me at least, obscure band, ever be better than Rare Earth? This album is filled to the brim with great songs, strong melodies, signifying riffs and boundless enthusiasm and energy. Only in the last song the break is put on and the genre changed allowing all involved soft landing.
Before that Vacation, Jerome Westerkamp III, Evan Wolff (also see the artwork), John Hoffman and John Clooney, simply doesn't let you go. The band shows its love for music from several decades back. One moment the band colours a song more towards punkrock, in others 80s and early 90s rockbands come through loud and clear. Despite the music sounding familiar Vacation manages to capture my attention. The dip in my ears is 'Cheap Death Rattle'. Every album is allowed one or two and still be good. A song like 'Mobility' turns everything in the right direction once again.
Yes, I have dozens of albums like Rare Earth. This is simply the very welcome new addition. Just like Vacation I need my daily dose of rock and roll and Rare Earth is exactly the dose I need right now after a day of extremely necessary yet dull work that needs to be done in order to subject a strong proposal for a project. Thank you, Vacation.
Wout de Natris
You can listen to and order Rare Earth here:
https://vacation.bandcamp.com/album/rare-earth
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