Album Review: Beach Slang - "The Deadbeat Bang Of Heartbreak City"

 

Beach Slang seem to have been one of those bands who've been sailing just under my radar for a while now - there's been more than one person who's said to me "Oh, you like the Senseless Things and the Replacements? You'd love these guys!" over the last few years.

And so here in 2020 I finally find myself listening to a Beach Slang album. And it's pretty good. Right from the off, Let It Ride sees them wearing their Westerberg influences on their sleeves as does the Can't Hardly Wait style horn section on recent single Tommy In The '80s (perhaps tellingly they now have none other than Tommy Stinson on bass for them) but they quickly throw a curveball in as Bam Rang Rang goes from a supersonic Ramones full throttle blast to suddenly switching to an almost Smoke On The Water style riff-fest midway through. The one-two of Nobody Say Nothing and Nowhere Bus nearby are aching acoustic-led Skyway style laments but no worse for it.

If the one complaint here is that it seems that this is maybe drifting into full-on Replacements tribute territory so far, the scuzzy Stiff takes a turn down a seedy back alley to sound more like the Dead Boys covering the Velvet Underground. Elsewhere, the frenetic Born To Raise Hell is one part Ramones and one part Cheap Trick while Sticky Thumbs recalls the Ataris in their more "kick out the jams" moments with both tracks going down like a shot of cold soda on a hot summer's day. Kickin' Over Bottles is a summery riffed-up riot not a million miles away from the Speedways before the stark seven minute piano ballad Bar No One shows another side to the band's sound to close the album nicely.

Yes, I'll say it now - it's pretty easy to spot Beach Slang's influences but there's far more strings to their bow besides the very obvious Replacements one and quite simply, The Deadbeat Bang Of Heartbreak City is just simply good old fashioned scuzzy rock 'n' roll fun with a bit of punk and glam thrown in for good measure and...aw hell, let's just cut to the chase here, it's good fun to listen to and shows a lot more melodical nous than a lot of bands lately have been able to come up with.

There's an old saying - it's okay to be a musical magpie if you treat the stuff you pinch with the due respect and make no mistake, Beach Slang definitely do. Colour me impressed - I will definitely be checking out the rest of their back catalogue in the near future I think.

If you want to check out The Deadbeat Bang of Heartbreak City or any of the rest of Beach Slang's catalogue, you can do so at their Bandcamp page.

NITE SONGS RATING: 🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌑🌑 (8/10)