Q. HOW GOOD IS THIS RECORD?
A. 728. And a half.
By which I mean who cares? It's the most exhilaratingly warped piece of ROCK & ROLL to have reared its head, grinned at the world with four teeth missing and then tried to BURN IT DOWN since... well, since their first record. Bursting into LIFE with a psychotic, edgy intensity, Guy McKnight's deep-throated voice rumbles over the sparse drumbeat, recalling Nick Cave at the height of his death-obsessed Bad-Seed days, (You know, back when 'ballad' just meant they were going to get REALLY dark.)
"I wanna sing like Sinatra/I wanna fly like an Eagle/ I wanna date with Destruction/I wanna love like a Mother"
Before the bass creeps in, swaggering with a latent purpose, playing around the stark rockabilly rhythm with all the menace of a stalker's footsteps... Build for a couple bars... And then the GUITARS come in, crushing any remaining resistance with a no-nonsense STUNNER of a riff, and McKnight's vocals turned up a notch this time in terms of pure, loss-of-control CONVICTION. Sorry, did I say a notch? Well scratch that right now. Because we're talking the greatest album opener ever here. Er, okay, it's in the top 10. 30. Whatever, its AN ABSOLUTELY BLOODY BRILLIANT RECORD.
If you ever thought that music should be dirty, fast, loud, simple, complicated, angry, scary, friendly, outraged, outrageous and passionate ALL AT ONCE; if you ever thought that music should bloody well ROCK on top of this; If you ever thought that Rock & Roll had maybe DIED; If you ever thought that maybe Punk Rock could answer your prayers, then you're gonna LOVE the Eighties Matchbox. This record is full of the illogical, instinctive, incomprehensible poetry that the BEST Rock & Roll lyrics are made of, and contains some of the most distinctive and indeed brilliant music of the last ten years/twenty five years/ever/let's get more carried away.
Like the cramps discovering Punk Rock, only better. Scuzzy psycho-grunge-post-halloween-hangover music that inhabits its own universe of insomniac nightmare-fairytales, ALL DRESSED UP AND READY TO GO. This is the music of right now, this band sound like nothing else on earth, externalizing their introverted torments into a masterpiece of Psychobilly Rock & Roll.
1. Rise Of The Eagles
2. I Could Be An Angel
3. When I Hear You Call My Name
4. Migrate Migraine
5. Puppy Dog Snails
6. Dancing Girls
7. Fool
8. I Rejection
9. Drunk On The Blood
10. Mister Mental
11. Freud's Black Muck
12. Temple Music
13. Way Of The Men Of The Stuff
More about: The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster
