This is straight up rock from Massachusetts with plenty of blues based chord progressions and classic lead breaks, driving rhythms with pounding bass runs and simple drumbeats, raspy singing, a good dose of melody, etc. They also have some guest musicians for the occasional use of piano, organ, and harmonica. Musically it definitely reminds me a little bit of Kiss (mainly the solos and the basic chords, the basslines are way more involved), but with a modern flare and more diverse songwriting (though not too far gone), but the vocals are of course very different. Speaking of diversity, "Come on Down" breaks out the acoustic guitars, harmonica, and organ for a really laidback jam type of song. Not my thing, but a nice change of pace for sure. The recording is about what you'd expect from something like this. It's fairly clean and clear, but it's not pristine, it has that dry sort of 70's sound going on, but it's a bit fuller and brighter in some ways. The bass is well defined, the drums are straightforward, the vocals are in the heart of the music, and the guitars are overdriven without a whole ton of distortion or anything, so they retain their melody well (despite getting too choppy at times). The CD comes in a nice digipack with an illustration of a strip club scene on the front using very few colors. Everything else is straight black and white with almost entirely handwritten text rather than fonts. The lyrics are just sort of rock 'n' roll, just day to day shit in a way, to various degrees. "Say it ain't no thing, You only get what you bring, No matter what the cost, No matter what you lost, From fool to liar, From fuel to fire, Enemy from friend, 'Cause you're sick again..." Not bad. This doesn't grab me per se, but it's not bad. It's a good rock record, but it's not as memorable or catchy as I'd prefer. I don't know what's missing, the lack of true originality isn't problematic, I think they just need to pack more energy into the songwriting (see "Uglier Every Day" and "Getting' All Bad Lieutenant..." for a taste of that).
[Traktor7]
Running time - 32:04, Tracks: 9
[Notable tracks: Go Down, Uglier Every Day, Getting' All Bad Lieutenant (Part 1)]
Traktor7 - http://www.traktor7.com
