Walking On Sunshine!
The Boston rockers are back with the follow up to the solid Sleazy-Rock’n’Blues album, ‘Got The Goat By The Horns’ from a couple of years ago. ‘Pacifuego’ follows on nicely from the aforementioned previous album showing that the band are still rocking on full burners, and not easing into an album of ballads with a couple of up tempo tracks. In fact there are no ballads here at all.
As I’ve previously described the band, they sound very much like Junkyard mixed with The Hellacopters and Queens Of The Stone Age. This album is packed full of thick riffs and big beats, and differs only from the previous one with a more rounded-Rock feel, introducing a melodic side that doesn’t dampen the sound at all. This is Rock for grown ups, not moaning youngster-EMO. This is for lovers of whiskey, tattoos and fast women, not lovers of cardigans, straight fringes and anti-depressants…
First song, ‘Building A Case’ slowly builds up with the signature repetitive riffs that border slightly on Stoner Rock. This draws you into the band like sweets to a small child. Then we have a hard beat in the background on the slightly more melodic song, ‘Calling All Clowns’ which is more Blue’n’Roll and a little like Buckcherry. Things shift slightly in, ‘Lost In Plain Site’ that has some nice harmonies coupled with the slightly fuzzy guitars sounding like Sleazy Rockers The Toilet Boys, a band that can mix up nicely 70’s Glam with Garage Rock superbly. This is a nice new twist to the band.
I defy any true hard rock fan not to get hard nipples as the delicious drum beat and guitar lick kick in together at the beginning of, ‘I Am The One And Only’. This takes the basics of a great rock song and blasts it out at you like a machine gun. It’s like Danko Jones after four hours with a band of dirty whores. Next song, ‘Standing In The Road’ again is good because it is simple and uncomplicated. It’s like The Ramones singing AC/DC. We all like originality and intricate music masterpieces, but do you know what? Sometimes we also like to just kick back and listen to something that we can get crazy to, and this is a large slice of exactly what I’m talking about.
‘Pearl’ has some great melodies and could’ve been written by Ginger from The Wildhearts, and I personally think that he is an underrated song writer. It’s Rock’n’Roll but has those harmonies and melodies that make it catchy, melodic but hard too. This takes us to, ‘Buried By You’ that has a shotgun beat and slightly melodic guitar riffs. Lead singer, Johnny Anguish’s vocals are even better on this album showing that he has a voice that happily moves from leaning towards a number of other lead vocalists, whilst still having a distinctive voice of his own. ‘Rats’ once again has that Wildhearts-esque sound, and I have to say I love it. The song is again simple but has such a nice melody in the vocals that it gets into your head instantly. The sign of a great song.
We then have the short, sharp shot of, ‘What Now?’ that could be best described and Sleaze-Punk. It’s fast-paced sounding a little like Iggy Pop. Great stuff. Then we have a more thoughtful side to the band with the mid-tempo Rock of, ‘You’ve Got The Whole Thing Wrong’. The album ends with the brattish-Punk of, ‘Suffer The Damage’, and fine finale to a good album.
Dirt Mall’s previous album was a good Hard Rock album. It was slightly dated in places, and I mentioned in the review would’ve been a great album in 1991. However with this album the band have evolved immensely now bringing forth a sound that no longer sounds dated, but sounds like a great Rock album of our time. There is less Sleaze, and more melodies, however this is not a lame album as there are enough songs with riffs larger than King Kong’s balls to make you truly feel like a man!
It’s a very good solid album that may well make another Boston Blues’n’Roll band some of the success of their Godfathers Aerosmith. Fingers crossed.