Reviews
CLASSIC ROCK RATINGS
The Professionals
SNAFU JTP
Ex-Pistol soldiers on with relatively raw recruits.
Formed from the still-smouldering ashes of the Sex Pistols by Steve Jones and Paul Cook (with various vocalists), The Professionals were everything that John Lydon’s Public Image Ltd were not: thrashy, punky, anthemic, with a penchant for big choruses and power chords. Musical styles move quickly, though, and their sound dated quickly and Cook and Jones moved on to other things.
And now the band are back, with vocalist Tom Spencer and guitarist Toshi JC Ogawa (plus guests including Billy Duffy and Marco Pirroni and, allegedly, Steve Jones). In the wake of pop-punk bands like Green Day and their like, SNAFU sounds relatively contemporary, with air-punching songs like Spike Me Baby and Punk Rock And A Hard Place. Enthusiastic, energetic, and a lot better than it needs to be, this is a powerful and enjoyable return.
David Quantick
Florence Black
Weight Of The World FLORENCE BLACK
British rock’s latest hotshots serve up impressive debut.
South Wales has turned into an unexpected hot spot for new rock and metal bands: Those Damn Crows, Scarlet Rebels and now Florence Black.
The Merthyr Tydfil trio have been corralled into the New Wave Of Classic Rock movement, but there’s nothing retro about their debut album. Weight Of The World roars like a jet engine about to leave the runway. Its big win is to wholeheartedly embrace the kind of blockbusting choruses many of their peers seem afraid to write. Propelled by singer/guitarist Tristan Thomas’s from-the-guts voice and some impressively metallic riffing, On The Ropes and In My Head deliver some truly enormous hooks. Even when things teeter on the edge of cliché – as per Zulu’s comically literal recreation of the Michael Caine classic film of the same name – they pull it back by melodic force of will.
There’s an urgency here that comes with having slogged around the circuit for nine years, even though the band are still in their mid-20s. But the hard yards are behind them. With Weight Of The World, Florence Black have lift-off.
Dave Everley
The Cutthroat Brothers and Mike Watt
Devil In Berlin HOUND GAWD!
Debut album of psychobilly featuring ex-Minuteman.
If you’re more partial to a broad, eclectic collection of styles, then perhaps this album isn’t for you. From Bad Candy Girl through to Wild Western, it’s 11 straight slugs drawn from the same well of dregs, sleaze, zombie horror schtick and decadent goo as The Cramps, The Birthday Party and The Gun Club. Jason Cutthroat’s angle-grinder guitars belch smoke and sparks, while Donny Paycheck keeps up a rumbling, menacing undertow on drums, as if playing with a caveman’s clubs.
Topping it off is Mike Watt, bassist and veteran of The Minuteman and Firehose as well as being something of a literary legend in his own right. His presence here adds not just a grizzled gruffness to these songs of heavy experience, but also a wry, scholarly air. These guys have only been together three years, but it’s like they’ve been hitting the road since the crash they died in back in 1957, the un-dead raging on.
David Stubbs
Steve Perry
The Season FANTASY
Reanimated Journey man’s crack at festive faves.
It’s fair to say that Steve Perry has never quite followed the traditional career trajectory. Since quitting Journey in 1998, he went into semi-retirement for 20 years before the soulful album. How to follow that? With a set of unashamedly sentimental, soft-focus renditions of Christmas standards, of course!
