Album Review: Scarlet Rebels - "See Through Blue"

 

Any band that touts itself as the sound of the (ugh) New Wave of Classic Rock getting political is at least an intriguing prospect on the surface and so I approached this second album from Llanelli rockers Scarlet Rebels with a bit of interest. I mean, it can't be any worse than some of the stinkers that this genre's thrown up in the last few years, surely?

The opening track here I'm Alive reminds me a bit of a three way collision between the Struts, the Black Crowes and Reef with its twisting Skynyrd style riff. It's alright but it doesn't really stand out from the crowd. And unfortunately it's kind of symptomatic of the rest of this album - there's plenty of good musicianship and hard graft in there but the tunes here just don't have the hooks to really pull you in. Not to mention that tracks like the ballad-by-numbers Leave The Light On (which sounds like a second division Quireboys more than anything) really do lay on the clichés like nobody's business. See Through Blue is an album that you'll happily listen to once but I very much doubt you'll cue it up for repeated listening.

Ah but what about that much-trumpeted political invective? Well, These Days (which sounds more like the Stereophonics than anything) has the lyrics "These days I'm neither left nor right" and I Can't Say's chorus offers up the, um, insight of "I can't tell whether you are right or wrong" - so pretty much the politics of indecision then…sigh, talk about a cop-out. It all kind of makes the posturing here sound less than convincing - it's a bit difficult to take a band claiming "We're the rebels on the way!" on a song with big over-polished production like Take You Home particularly seriously to be honest. We're Going Nowhere and the Billy Bragg-esque title track at least seem to have some genuine anger behind them and probably point the way forward for this band.

Credit to Scarlet Rebels for at least attempting to put a different spin on the incredibly hackneyed NWOCR genre but compared to some of the genuinely dangerous political firebrands like Bob Vylan or the Muslims who've broken through in recent years or the sheer anguished fury of Dead Sheeran or Rum Lad, See Through Blue just sounds massively watered down for the most part. It's less the angry dissident screaming injustice from the barricades and more a middle class Guardian reader tutting over his cornflakes while watching the headlines on BBC Breakfast News. Full marks for good intentions lads but this falls a fair way short I’m afraid.

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