Sleazy Goodness
Semi Precious Weapons finally release their first album since being the first band to sign with ‘Haus of Gaga’, Lady Gaga’s Interscope imprint Label. "You Love You" follows up their self released debut album "We Love You" with the same style of great old fashioned, sleazy yet full of glamour songs, which for those who have been fortunate to see Semi Precious Weapons live will know all about.
"You Love You" kicks off with ‘Semi Precious Weapons’, one of the three tracks that appeared on the original album and received a makeover that even Gok Wan would have been proud of. It opens up with Stevie Pyne’s dirty sounding guitar with lead singer, Justin Tranter, screaming the now legendary opening line “I can’t pay my rent but I’m fucking gorgeous”. ‘Semi Precious Weapons’ is a song full of fist pumping, crowd chanting and some superb guitar work from Mr Pyne, including where he is let loose for the first guitar solo on the album.
The other two original tracks to have survived are the rocking ‘Magnetic Baby’ and ‘Rock N Roll Never Looked So Beautiful’ with the latter having more layers added to it and yet another of Stevie Pyne’s solos. Both tracks are full of vigour, which comes close to catching the live sound of the band. The lyrics are riddled with innuendos all over the album but none more so than on ‘Sticky With Champagne’ including the not so subtle line "She don’t swallow top shelf"; I have a feeling the conservative people will be running a mile. The new songs just keep getting better each time you listen to them, ‘Put A Diamond In It’ will be yet another anthem song for the band while ‘Statues Of Ourselves’ shows the versatility of the band.
While the majority of the album is full on rock n roll, there is another side to it, which some of the Semi Precious Weapons fans may be shocked at; there are some melodic ballads! Ok, the original album did have one ballad, ‘Time Zones’, "You Love You" has three, including ‘Leave Your Pretty To Me’ with an orchestra backing the band; Semi Precious Weapons do not do anything by half. In a recent interview, the band told R13 that the last track from the album, ‘Look At Me’ will be a surprise to those that have followed the band and it is. Similar to ‘Blend In’, a Justin Tranter solo song, it is the softest of ballads, which shows Justin Tranter not only is the most beautiful person in the world but has beautiful vocals to go with it too.
The album is full of riffs and sounds that can only be described as Rolling Stones meets AC-DC with a little bit of early Aerosmith thrown in for good measure. ‘You Love You’ is a genuine contender for album of the year.