Yes I'm late to the Buck & Evans party as this album made some best of lists In 2018 when it first came out as a pledge album before getting it's "proper Release" in November 2019 and again making some best of the year lists. As this Cardiff based rock group continue to be hotly tipped for great things by among others Planet Rock and Rockshot magazine.
The opening song Slow train immediately reminds me of the slower songs that Skunk Anansie do with Sally Ann Evans vocals sounding a good bit like Skin and as the band really get going it becomes a full-blown epic rock song to get things going.
Change is a slow piano ballad with some cool harmony backing vocals as a love letter to someone they really love the way they are.
Sunrise has a quiet beginning before it again goes a good bit Skunk Anansie on us and with a very cool bass line underpinning the quiet parts before Chris Bucks guitar really hits in again.
The opening of Sinking feels like an old gospel song that I was expecting to build as Sally Ann Evans slowly lets us know how she's feeling and the drums add some emphasis as the story unfolds and you can heart the pain in her vocals as the backing vocals feel like a choir singing from the rooftop down as this goes properly full blown 7 minute plus heartbreaker on us.
Common Ground is something that many of us are seeking in these divided times and this song that reminds me of Sass Jordan that has a kind of Gospel blues rock feel to it.
Back to Yesterday is looking back on good times before everything goes wrong and they hope to get back to the happy place once more as the blues rock starts to build and build nicely.
Extremely thankfully Fix You isn't a cover of some dreadful hit, but Buck & Evans own song, it's about trying to make a friend feel better after everything has gone wrong, it's another of the bands songs to follow the quiet loud formula that suits this song very well indeed.
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Trail Of Tears may confuse some listeners expecting a song about the Cherokee nations trail of tears but instead is another heartbreak blues to help you get over another messy break up.
Ain't No Moonlight is the funkiest song on the album and really feels like it's a bit of a floor filler, or would have been if it came out in the late 70's it has a real strutting feel to it and given a big enough stage I'd expect the guitarist and bass players to be walking across the stage in time as they play it.
Going Home is yet another song that deals with what in this case Sally Ann Evans mama told her and the lessons she's learned, it gets as epic as anything else on this album but thankfully never gets totally overblown. This was the final song on the pledge version of this album and hearing the monumental guitar solo that sounds like they are wrapping things up that makes sense a real tour de force of a song.
One Four is the bonus track on the non-pledge version of the album and carries on where the rest of Write A better day left off as another very accomplished modern blues rock heartbreaker.
Find out more at www.buckandevans.com
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