Album Review: The Urban Voodoo Machine - "Snake Oil Engine"

 

It's good to see the Voodoos back after a three year break since their last album. Snake Oil Engine was actually originally due to be released last year but the Covid pandemic put the kibosh on that with the Voodoos unable to convene for 12 months due to the sheer impracticalities of trying to get a band with a dozen members together during a lockdown. In the meantime, frontman Paul-Ronney Angel kept himself busy with online gigs and released a series of lockdown singles later collated on the very worthy London Texas Lockdown collection last year.

Indeed, a few of the songs here actually saw the light on some of the Voodoos' pre-lockdown singles but it's still good to see them again and there's no doubt that the lilting calypso of Living In Fear (a vicious riposte to the small-minded little Englander anti-immigrant knucklehead brigade), the anti-consumerism tirade polka of Empty Plastic Cup, the desolate howl of January Blues and the anti-racism anger of the self-explanatory Johnny Foreigner sound just as on-the-nail as they did two prime ministers ago. 

There's plenty of good new stuff on here as well from the moment the folky ode to staying away from juvenile delinquency Little Jimmy And The Wrong Crowd kicks this one off. The desolate blues of Droppin' Like Flies takes a look at the advancing of age among us rock 'n' rollers when you swear the haunting sound of the reaper's scythe taking another swing and another of your old musician or drinking buddies being gone is something you hear on an increasingly worrying basis while Hell's Caravan, another impassioned cry for the Sun-reading thickwits in society to start being a bit more considerate to those fleeing war and inhumanity to try and seek a new life here, is every bit as ominous as its title suggests. Elsewhere, Gonna Riot Tonight goes from rockabilly to sinister jazz in an instant and Pill Popping Cross Dressing Copper adds a dose of humour to what's probably the darkest Voodoos' album to date. Carry Your Weight meanwhile is an anthem for the downtrodden in society that no matter how bad things get, you are never alone and after the doomy messages of the previous half an hour it provides a much needed chink of sunlight at the end of the tunnel before the swaggering defiance of Last Man Smoking signs this one off in style.

As I say, the Urban Voodoo Machine have always been a band never afraid to confront the darker side of life and in Snake Oil Engine, they may have turned in their most bleak and angry work to date. But as always, the key is that the sheer joie de vivre, energy and inventiveness of these songs is what elevates this album up to another genuinely great effort from this very unique band. One of the strongest albums of 2022, let there be no doubt.

NITE SONGS RATING: 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑 (9/10)