Album Review: Radio Days - "Rave On!"

 

We've had a few power pop bands from Italy landing on these pages in recent years (Giuda and Faz Waltz being the two most obvious) and Radio Days are another to add to this canon. Rave On, despite its titular nod to Buddy Holly, is certainly an album with its head in the late ‘70s with the opening duo of I Got A Love and Lose Control being sugar-sweet soundalikes of the Romantics and the Buzzcocks respectively.

However, despite their obvious leanings towards the halcyon days of power pop as evidenced on When I'm With You and the Costello-esque harmonies of No One To Blame, Rave On isn't just a one-trick pony - the jangling guitars of Walk Alone bring to mind the prospect of a cross between the Ramones and Big Star which isn't bad at all, What Is Life? tips a nod to the stomping glam sound of the Sweet and Meltdown even dips a toe into ska waters. It's not all plain sailing - Running Around clearly wants to be the Kinks but just ends up dragging a bit, the five minute attempt at psychedelia on Between The Lines is a brave attempt to try something different but is all over the place musically while Till The End Of The Night sounds like a Jags B-side more than anything but there's more good than bad here.

Rave On! isn't quite a power-pop classic and to be honest there are better bands of this genre about (not least just because there's so bleedin' many of 'em these days) but it's still a respectable effort which fans of the genre will find plenty to enjoy within.

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NITE SONGS RATING: 🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌑🌑🌑 (7/10) 

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