Album Review: Baby Shakes - "Cause A Scene"


Your correspondent first ran into New York based power-pop types Baby Shakes at the Pump It Up Power-Pop Weekend concert in London a couple of years ago and was pleasantly surprised by their tight-as-you-like take on garage rock. Now on their fourth album, Cause A Scene is a good effort which hits home with power and precision. Imagine if the Donnas had grown up listening to the Buzzcocks and the Undertones rather than Kiss and Judas Priest and you wouldn't be a million miles off.

Songs like the title track, Nowhere Fast, Love Song In Reverse and Down are well and truly locked in and will have your toe tapping along from the off with melodies that'll stick in your head and stubbornly refuse to leave. Meanwhile they cover Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again? by Aussie rockers the Angels and comprehensively put their own stamp on it to good effect.

If this band had come along in the wake of the garage band boom of 15-20 years ago then I think it's fair to say they'd have had a decent shot at becoming chart-conquering superstars the way groups like the Von Bondies and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs briefly did. It's a real shame that a decade plus into their career, they're still pretty much unknowns especially on this side of the Atlantic. Give this album a spin at their Bandcamp page (where you can find their other efforts as well) and see for yourself - they definitely deserve more of an audience than they've got so far.

NITE SONGS RATING: 🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌑🌑 (8/10)

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