Foot tapping rock
Love Commandos is a Birmingham based rock band that has been together in one form or the other since the early 90's with a variety of line-up changes. In the early days they were a rock cover band, apparently focusing on the 70's and 80's, playing on the local pub circuit.
The current members include Rob Bates (Keyboard, Guitar, Backing Vocals), Ken Bearman (Bass, Backing Vocals), Neil Horsburgh (Vocals), Andy Hubble (Drums) and Richard Price (Guitar).
The album aptly starts and ends with air raid sirens, although the final siren goes on a tad too long for my liking. We 'got it' at the start. However, once the rock kicks off, rock is what you get. It is radio friendly, easy listening, foot tapping rock 'n' roll. Love Commandos have been compared with the likes of Manic Street Preachers and The Cult, and I would add some grunge and post grunge sounds with Soundgarden and REM, stadium rock similar to Velvet Revolver and Live and even a little Faith No More to a lesser extent, to the mixing pot. Ultimately, it doesn't really matter who they are compared to, Love Commandos will blast straight forward 90's rock and post grunge through your inner ear, all enhanced by riff laden rock tunes. There is nothing complicated about the music and, to be honest, I found the lyrics a little boring and disappointingly ordinary. Saying that, this is rock and there are no gimmicks either; what you hear is what you get.
"Siren" took the band 17 years to record and I can only think of one other artist that came close to that. However, the result is that technically the sound is perfectly mixed and every individual instrument received equal treatment without overpowering the others.
'Life' is apparently earmarked for an American sitcom, and after reading that, it sounded like a sitcom song to me. 'Red Line' is a prime example of the great mixing and production of the album, which enhanced the catchy bass groove.
Don't get me wrong, "Siren" is an easy listening, radio friendly, no fuss, and very well produced rock album. There is nothing outstanding about the music, but as I said before, you get the feeling that what you see is what you get with these blokes.