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DVDfever.co.uk – Them Crooked Vultures: Them Crooked Vultures CD reviewElly Roberts reviews
Sony/RCA Records
- Released: November 2009
- Rating: 10/10+
- Vote and comment on this album:View Comments
Three stars hussle their buns in LA County.
It would have been unsurprising if three rock legends decided to have some extra-curricular distraction just for the sheer hell of it. They met (conveniently) at Dave Grohls 40th birthday party last year, and Hey Presto! an album.
If Jack White pulled-off a masterstroke forming supergroup The Raconteurs, then Foo Fighters Dave Grohl has matched it with Them Crooked Vultures. It was top secret stuff and amazingly the media didnt get a whiff.Capitalising on the stalemate in the Led Zeppelin camp following the one-off O2 show, Grohl enticed bassist John Paul Jones (64) to join him with Queens Of The Stone Age singer/multi-instrumentalist Josh Homme (36) at the Pink Duck studios in Burbank, Los Angeles County.
Now, Im not exactly a big Foo fan for starters. I know even less about QOTSA. As for Led Zep well, the greatest rock band ever.When I saw the TCV line-up, especially knowing Grohls penchant for over zealous drumming and unsophisticated guitar technique (subtlety aint this guys middle name) I feared the worse.
Hearing this though, Ive got a gut feeling that ol thunder-thumb Jones had a bigger influence than Grohl, and its for the better too, because this is a seriously brilliant album, fusing old school sensibilities with 21st century touchstones.
Zeps ability to fuse rock with melody has been recreated here without the thrash mentality of the Foos, thankfully. Hommes singing is fantastic showing a good range, sometimes bordering on falsetto. His guitar work is pretty impressive too, with a definite nod to Zeps Jimmy Page in places. In essence theyve done a Zep by genre styling hard rock, alternative rock, and blues-rock, and it has to be said, with swagger and style. One thing it lacks is diversity, because this is effectively a white knuckle ride par excellence.
Before they got to the tapes, there must have been some serious jamming going on I can tell you. The overall feel is a band keen to impress (not overly) with their collective skills. And, they sound very comfortable with each other, so they can relax and let rip. And rip they do.After a stuttering start, (not a clever idea to tracklist your most tentative offering as the opener No One Loves Me ) the band finds its groove quickly hitting throbs galore on Mind Eraser and then on jam-like lead-off single New Fang. Massive chord slabs and wailing solos propel high-octane Elephants. Then we get to a Cream-like gem (and THE jewel in the crown) Scumbag Blues. Homme hits falsetto and burns up some fine solos. JPJ hits a Zep-like Trampled Underfoot keyboard drop-in, bringing an instantly infectious and foot-tapping groove – awesome. Bandoliers has JPJ written all over it, with Latin flourishes and shifting time signatures, with the latter heavily featured on Reptiles.
Warsaw has strong space-jazz-rock elements with a dirty riff and glorious harmonies hovering overhead, while Caligulove is an unforgiving beast with a quirky ending hear the titters.After JPJs piano introduction, all hell breaks loose on Spinning Daffodils, which would have slotted nicely onto Led Zeppelin 4.
The verdict Wow!
Weblink:themcrookedvultures.com
The full list of tracks included are :
1. No One Loves Me & Neither Do I
2. Mind Eraser, No Chaser
3. New Fang
4. Dead End Friends
5. Elephants
6. Scumbag Blues
7. Bandoliers
8. Reptiles
9. Interlude With Ludes
10. Warsaw Or The First Breath You Take After You Give Up
11. Caligulove
12. Gunman
13. Spinning In DaffodilsView the discussion thread.blog comments powered by Disqus= 0) {query += ‘url’ + i + ‘=’ + encodeURIComponent(links[i].href) + ‘&’;}}document.write(”);})();//]]]]>]]>
Elly Roberts passed away in 2011, but he was a man who was so passionate about all types of music and loved meeting his musical heroes, such as Mick Hucknall at a book signing at the Trafford Centre, Manchester in 2007.
A former teacher and also a music journalist, DJ and radio presenter on local community station Calon FM, plus appearances on BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio Cymru and BBC Radio 2, Elly started doing reviews for DVDfever.co.uk in 2004 and he did the majority of the CD and concerts reviews on the website.
I know also that he loved getting away for the summer to Spain and I hope that wherever he is now he is enjoying the hot sunshine and, as one of his friends has said on his Facebook page, that he is interviewing his musical heroes.