Friday, November 2, 2012

That's the way it always comes around (Evermore)

My Roctober 22 post focused on being in the mood to buy CDs.

This post is Mood part 2.

As George Costanza says to Jerry Seinfeld (when Jerry won't give details of sleeping with Elaine cos he's not 'in the mood'):
I don't have a job, I have no place to go, you're not in the mood? Well you get in the mood!!
ZZ Top helped get me in the mood: repeated listens to I gotsta get paid sealed the deal after those videos from my Oct 22 post piqued interest.

In the end I bought three of the four CDs mentioned in that post (the only one yet to be purchased is the Diana Krall one).

The verdicts:

La Futura is awesome. The quality hinted at by the single, I gotsta get paid, is maintained throughout. Billy Gibbons sounds like he's channelling Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters at times. He's raw, he's ready, he's a funky gibbon!



There are plenty of early standouts, I've picked second track, Chartreuse, as being representative of the great sound the Three Tops can put out. The sonic quality is huge on the album. I listened to a few tracks on my p-pod from Afterburner (an album I love) before switching to the new one and La Futura is a much, much better sound.

The Datsuns' album is also a welcome relief after their last few outings have failed in inspire me. Dolf's yell, razor sharp guitars, boogie till you puke rifferamas!! What's not to like? It's a triumphant return to their signature sound and, this time out, it's a much meatier sounding sonic attack from the harmonic generators from Cambridge, NZ.



Evermore have returned to a sound that is closer to their second, much loved, album. The brothers from Feilding, NZ, know how to write hook laden pop songs, that's fer sure.

If I have a criticism it is that this is, at times, too much like their sound on album number 2 - Real Life and they are in danger of becoming too formulaic. I loved that album and it sounds churlish to say because pop music by definition is formulaic, but they could do with being a little bit more adventurous. The new one (Follow The Sun) could be Real Life Volume 2.

Hmmmm - maybe I'm being too tough. There are big songs on both albums and it will be on high rotate in the coming months. And it least they didn't do another naff concept album!

That's the way is a song that could, and maybe should, be a pointer to future directions. It's got some variety and drive and pop sensibilities but without the keening Embrace vocals they love so much (and are maybe overdoing).

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