The Duel - All Aboard The Crazy Train
From the streets of London town, old school punk rockers The Duel release their third album "All Aboard The Crazy Train" after an extensive spell of touring. The band's obvious influences are clearly shown with the likes of The Slits, Siouxise and The Banshees and The Sex Pistols getting the obvious nods in the makeup of the group's style as well as a touch of glam rock swagger and girl power sass within the contents of the album. Vocalist Tara Rez has the subtle elements of Blondie's Debbie Harry, Siouxise Sioux and The Go-Go's in her smoky and sultry voice.
However, unlike most other punk rock albums, there just feels like there is no power in the punches in the songs. The energy and savage bite you would expect from a punk rock act seems almost non-existent here. There is just a plodding pace and it doesn't really kick up past third gear throughout the duration of this whole album.
As a band, The Duel sound tight enough and the musicianship is good between the quartet with the presence of keyboards adding a slight degree of depth to the music, but nothing ultimately grabs you and gets up in your face straight away here. The standard formula for generic punk rock is followed so precisely it just seems very repetitive and flat and this isn't really helped by the swathes of reverb and echo that drowns out any clarity and that takes away the potential grit and rawness that could be delivered by the bus load and down the throat. The concept of All Aboard The Crazy Train's material could be transferred well on to a live set scenario but on record it just doesn't work too well.
A commendable effort from a group that have managed to capture a slice of seventies punk nostalgia but with a less than average delivery and a static sounding romp, it's hard to feel that this album has any connection with the potential listener or relevance for that matter.