Album Review: Faz Waltz - "Rebel Kicks"


 While they may not be quite as well known over here in dear old Blighty as their fellow countrymen Giuda, I would say that Faz Waltz are actually marginally the better of the two leading lights of Italian bootboy glam rock. Their last album, 2018’s Double Decker, was one of the surprise triumphs of the year, mixing the traditional Slade/Sweet glam stomp of this genre with a dash of Kinks/Small Faces style ‘60s pop to good effect.

Rebel Kicks is pretty much a straight continuation of its predecessor with lead off single Grown Up Guy being a Slade style stomper, the title track sounding like Mott the Hoople covering Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting and Got Me Goin’ being a good three minutes of T-Rex indebted flamboyance.

You do worry a bit with Broken Teeth and Rock ‘n’ Roll Is Tough that Faz Waltz are starting to repeat themselves a bit but the Steve Harley style piano ballad of Do You Remember? chucks in a welcome change of pace just in the nick of time before the swaggering Fighting On The Dancefloor gets things properly back on track especially when it’s followed by the fired up Last Train To Nowhere which sounds like a chugging old Chuck Berry number being dragged into the glam disco and doused in glitter and lurex. You can see this one working well as a set closer.

Born In The Wrong Time mines the late ‘60s Mick Taylor era Stones strut to good effect before the haunting acoustic led Heroes and Ghosts throws in a real curveball to set up the Sweet style stomp of Is It Love? for a more than satisfactory finale.

Similar to its predecessor, while there’s no question on Rebel Kicks that Faz Waltz are a band in thrall to the platform booted ‘70s sound, they’re smart enough to make sure that this isn’t the be-all and end-all of this album and there’s enough neat little tricks and unexpected twists and turns to make this one plenty of fun to listen to. Highly recommended - you can download or stream it from the Faz Waltz Bandcamp page.

NITE SONGS RATING: 🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌑🌑 (8/10)

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