Album Review: The Gypsy Moths - "Following The Races"

 

Rum Bar Records seem to have gone into a bit of a busy spell recently with this being the third album from them that we've reviewed in these webpages in as many weeks after quite a long quiet spell with the soul power rock 'n' roll of the Magnificent and the agreeably straightforward glam-punk of the Legendary Swagger both making their way on to our review desk of late.

Boston natives the Gypsy Moths are a bit of a less straightforward proposition with the horn-soaked power-pop of Effortlessly reminding me a bit of the Saints' '80s output (Follow The Leaders etc) before Slow Healer goes for an almost disco style feel (although if you're of a certain vintage then you may find it difficult to get 10cc's terrible Dreadlock Holiday out of your head while listening to it!) and These Days Will Run has that pounding drum intro which recalls the Spencer Davis Group's Keep On Runnin'.

The main standout track on the album is The Continuing Story of Arthur Duffy which has an Exile era Stones feel to it with its loose piano and sax swagger (with maybe a hint of the Quireboys in there as well) and is well worth a listen in its own right with the rollicking We Can't Go Home being almost as good. At the other end of the scale, Relievio is a pretty weak effort which sounds more like a fourth division Small Faces than anything and For All I Care sounds a bit generic as well. City Point has an intriguing Deep Purple/Charlatans style drum shuffle powering it along and Maybe This Christmas might have landed a good five months early but it's an enjoyable slice of out of season festive balladry.

Following The Races is a bit of a mixed bag to be honest but there's more good than bad here and the best moments (especially the aforementioned Arthur Duffy) definitely merit a listen. The Gypsy Moths aren't quite the finished article on this evidence but they've got plenty of good ideas in here even if not all of them hit the bullseye and with a bit of extra refinement, they could well be capable of delivering something pretty damn special next time out. Keep your eye on 'em.

Bandcamp Link

NITE SONGS RATING: 🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌑🌑🌑 (7/10)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A brief return from the dead...

Image
  Yup, we're back. Don't all get excited at once. I’d been toying with the idea of doing an end of year list again this year and after a lot of umming and aahing eventually decided to go for it. As with last year, inevitably there were bumps along the way. As of the start of December, I thought this list would be around 40 albums but inevitably reading other people’s lists pointed me towards a bunch of stuff that had passed me by earlier in the year. Plus of course there’s always a few teasing buggers who put stuff out at the last possible moment. So 40 became 50 which became 60 which finally became 70. You lucky people. Actually though, reading through this list, the main thing that strikes me is that I think this might be the most musically varied end of year list that Nite Songs has ever done. From gentle acoustics through acclaimed indie veterans to punk thrash and good old fashioned scuzzy rock ‘n’ roll via some decidedly unexpected diversions (industrial folk music? Check...
Read more

Garbage Days Revisited #90: Soho Roses - "The Third And Final Insult" (1989)

Image
  "If you won't love me then I'll find someone who will!"  - Soho Roses  - So Alone The Soho Roses were a classic case of right band, wrong time. If they'd broken on to the scene in the last few years then they'd have had a ready made audience on the 21st century power pop scene and probably be regulars at Some Weird Sin and similar club nights in the Smoke. The reality? They broke through towards the tail end of the '80s and got lumped in with the dying embers of the Soho glam scene, leaving behind one sadly underappreciated album and a few EP's before self-combusting. In a way, I sort of see the Roses as a British version of Enuff Z'Nuff. Not so much in terms of their sound but more of the fact that they were a group crowbarred in with glam who weren't really a natural fit there and kind of paid the price for it - I've always thought Enuff Z'Nuff sounded more like a Britpop band with flashbomb guitars than a hair metal band. Oh sure, ...
Read more

Album Review: The Fades - "Night Terrors"

Image
  Hailing from South London, the Fades are gaining a reputation of one of the premier garage rock bands in the capital these days and, as with a few albums we've reviewed in these webpages of late, Night Terrors  was written during the lockdown as it was a recurring feature of life for the band's frontman Dave during the lockdown. As befits its title and subject matter, Night Terrors  is an off-kilter effort which might take a few listens to get into but rewards those who persevere with it. Certainly, the discordant vocals and guitars often give the impression of the whole operation being on the verge of collapse on the likes of The Pessimist  and Known It All Along  while Lost My Job  goes into XTC/Nightingales style post-punk territory. However, the likes of People In General  show that they can rein the weirdness in and build up an intriguing multi-part epic which starts off as tuneful new wave before drifting into a nightmarish state-of-the-nation ...
Read more