Album Review: Ginger Wildheart & The Sinners - "Ginger Wildheart & The Sinners"

 

Perhaps one of the most surprising things about the lockdown was that while his fellow Wildhearts were putting new material out, Ginger was mysteriously quiet between the Wildhearts' Renaissance Men and 21st Century Love Songs albums although the latter was proof that he certainly hadn't been idle during the pandemic. However, with life slowly returning to normal and the 'Hearts now sadly on hiatus for the foreseeable future, it's allowed the G-man to return to following his muse and hence the arrival of his new group, the country-influenced Sinners and this self-titled debut album.

Ginger describes the group as being influenced by a lot of the alt-country groups he's sung the praises of down the years including Jason & The Scorchers, The Georgia Satellites and the Jayhawks as well as the more countrified end of the Stones and Status Quo's output and I can definitely a hear a lot of that in the opening track and lead-off single Wasted Times. That Smile which follows it is even better, fired along by the sort of absolute killer chorus that Ginger seems to write so effortlessly. Footprints In The Sand sees guitarist Neil Ivison taking lead vocals for a more mid-tempo number and the gentle Lately Always is a well-timed dose of gentle sunny optimism although the group's cover of Quo's Dirty Water doesn't quite land somehow - I'm not quite sure why but somehow it doesn't quite have the sparkle of the rest of side one. Thankfully, it's just a temporary blip as Work In Progress kicks things back up a notch for a barn-dancing stomper complete with a mystery guest female vocalist who fair roars her verse out that you can just imagine the Scorchers coming up with back in the day.

Breakout is a more mid-tempo moody number which has a definite hint of the Pogues about it which is never a bad thing. The cover of the Georgia Satellites' Six Years Gone, supposedly the first song the group played together, is handled well leaving the moody mid-paced Not The Staying Kind (which could have sat on Ginger's Headzapoppin' album and the jocular closer Code Of The Road to guide us home. 

This debut Sinners album isn't exactly a departure for Ginger - you could argue that it's actually a logical follow-up to The Pessimist's Companion a few years ago with a full band now in place and certainly the group have fit themselves into the Americana sound like a particularly snug glove. For those who enjoy the UK side of the Americana music scene, you should find plenty to enjoy in this album.

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NITE SONGS RATING: 🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌑🌑 (8/10)