SOLARBABY are a three piece who hail from Vancouver and are led by a guy called Marq DeSouza who with a name like that obviously must play some guitar as well. From what I can gather they appear to have been around for a few years and have released a couple of albums previous to this in their native Canada, where they have established a reputation for their energetic live show.
The opening 'Born again, Buried Alive' is upbeat and straight forward country rock, pretty much standard stuff ,nothing offensive. There's plenty of jangly guitars on show, that have their catchy moments with plenty of clever little twists and turns. 'I am Tragedy' comes next and is a more Stonesy and slower paced affair It's during this tune when I start to realise that DeSouza sounds like Jagger; the same inflections and phrasings,
trying to find the same imagery voice. It's also at this point that the whole album begins to sound like one of the great man,s solo efforts which if you haven't heard a Mick Jagger Solo album is not always a good thing.
My suspicions are confirmed by track four, 'Only Grown' sounding like 'Wild Horses' being sung by The Bluetones but mediocre in comparison. The next tune 'Sixteen Years' is another rip off that again falls short and fails to capture any of the same fun ,drama or mayhem that the Stones create. When DeSouza sings: "there's been a shootout at the carnival inside my head" it's difficult not to agree with him. Indeed the whole thing is a tad too predictable and they end up sounding more like The Waterboys than the
|
Stones album filler status they aspire to.
The lyrical content is none too inspiring and a bit cryptic if not a bit
random, standing out for all the wrong reasons; "drowning in Singapore slings, we never kiss anymore' and "we wont die still hard on the boulevard, we won't die we play our cards close to the line" being two prime examples. There are more of them but hey give the guy a break, he recovers slightly through his guitar playing with some nice touches and he uses his effects well. He's well backed up by the rest of his band and technically speaking
they don't do a lot wrong but then faint praise...
They end with the ten minute country rock opus of 'Keep your Gunpowder Dry' which again is enthusiastic enough and is performed well but it fails to stir any kind of emotion in me other than relief for obvious reasons. This time DeSousa sings "keep your conscience clear, keep your gunpowder dry." Sorry dudes, it appears that I don't seem to be having any problems firing
mine.
|
