the black velvets - s/t
a lot of people are going to be hating on this group. and you know for a while, i too was part of that gang. i have over the last few months been sent various embossed single track promos of the bands various singles. each release had the same logo embossed on a black background, just the metallic colouring differed. a sucker for packaging these artefacts always caught my eye. unfortunately though, in such short bursts the single songs rarely caught my ear. but, when they are all placed together in one place with a few extra tracks thrown in for good measure, then weirdly the bands revisit of all things loud, hairy and 70's begins to make more sense. i am fully aware that it's not clever music, nor is it subtle in any shape of form, the songs are all in the same league with minimal variety over the 35 minutes, so there are lots of big stomping drums, a glut of glam ripping chugga chugga fuzzed up bass lines, grotty primal guitars (no clean epic solos going on here) and then there are the over the top medallion wearing gruff male vocals.
on most days, this album would make me wince and start spouting off about such cr*p as the darkness, but after a recent overdose on hip hop, it felt good to have the chorus heavy anthems clearing out the cobwebs and ended up striking an enjoyment nerve end. after a few spins i realised i loved the downright dirtiness in the production, i felt refreshed by the bands sheer audacity to make such uncool music i swept away my deeply held contempt towards balls out rock and roll and succumbed to the songs. after all, when they drop in clash styled chant-along of 3345 where the line 'join the ride' is pumped out to a fine punk noise, it's difficult not to be swept along by the unadulterated glam fun.
so i have to declare the following : i love it.
which surprises me more than you will ever know.