Album Review: Ed Banger & The Nosebleeds - "Revolution X"

 

Edweena Banger, it would seem, is one of the busiest ladies in rock 'n' roll at the moment. Fresh from unleashing her solo glam rock album Diamond Rocks last autumn and fronting Slaughter II (the Bite Back era line-up of Slaughter & The Dogs), she's also found the time to resurrect her initial '77 punk band the Nosebleeds - the group managed just the one single back in the day in the form of Ain't Bin To No Music School before line-up instability saw them fall apart although the line-up included an impressive pedigree of musicians who went on to bigger things elsewhere including Morrissey (the Smiths), Billy Duffy (the Cult) and Vini Reilly (Durutti Column).

Revolution X is a good offering although it owes more of a nod to Edweena's past with the Bite Back Slaughter line-up than the frenetic early punk of Music School but that's no bad thing - as I mentioned in the Garbage Days Revisited column we did on Slaughter & The Dogs, I happen to think that Bite Back is a bit of an underrated album. Certainly there's an enjoyable hint of the Ramones in opener Bite Back Rock 'n' Roll while Can't Stand The News is pure power-pop bliss and there's even a hint of the T-Rex influence that informed a lot of Diamond Rocks rearing its head again on Rolling Thunder and One For The Road. Elsewhere, Rollin' Stoned is the snake-hipped Mick 'n' Keef tribute that you'd expect and packs the right amount of swagger to blast through and most surprising of all is Babylon with its sparse piano and sax conjuring up images of Roxy Music - not the first comparison you'd think of with the Nosebleeds but they pull it off well.

All in all, Revolution X is a most enjoyable pop-punk album which takes its influences from the past but is careful about where it picks and chooses from and manages to blend those tried and tested components into a whole which is crammed full of catchy hooks and top drawer tunes. Definitely well worth your investigation.

NITE SONGS RATING: 🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌑🌑 (8/10)

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