Paul Steel - Moon Rock
By day Paul is a simple man, an accountant for Brabin & Associates, he lives alone and likes to keep himself to himself. None of his co-workers could suspect that by night inconspicuous Paul turns into PAUL STEEL! Crime fighter extraordinaire! Ridding the streets of the evil that plagues the nation. Knocking on the doors of crooked MP’s and turning wrongs into rights. Kids and men want to be him and women want to be with him.
Ah, oh no, I’ve got the wrong Paul Steel haven’t I!? This is singer/songwriter Paul Steel right? Leader in the world of industrial metal music, long time partner and collaborator with Alec Empire and Trent Reznor, pioneer of the overdriven wall of noise and lyrics centred around broken families and sexual bondage.
Oh god! Not that Paul Steel either?? Ok, ok, here’s the truth, Paul Steel is the singer/songwriter of jaunty, Beach Boys-esque summery pop and his new album Moon Rock is about to be unleashed on a very confused public. You see, my point (though I maybe went the long way round to get to it) is that a name says a lot about what your music is going to sound like. Paul Steel gives the image of many things, but not light weight melodies and songs titled ‘Oh No! Oh Yeah!’.
Unfortunately for Mr. Steel though his name is the least of his problems. His songs are, to be brutally honest, very dull. The meaningless lyrics and instantly forgettable melodies have been dressed up in rich harmonies and big drum breakdowns, very reminiscent of The Beach Boys Pet Sounds album, but without any of that magic. The song ‘Moon Rock’ in particular could have been written by Brian Wilson was it not for the insincerity of the lyrics and general lack of emotion.
And it gets worse from there with lyrics like ‘Now the evenings getting cold/ You just sit there getting cold’, it’s hard to feel any passion at all. At best Paul Steel’s Moon Rock sounds like a poor man’s Beach Boys, but at worst it sounds like a collection of The Feelings album tracks. Time to go back to the crime fighting.