Oh whatever Linda...
Big Linda is a rubbish name for a band. It's slightly rubbisher than Kula Shaker; emphatically rubbisher than Ocean Colour Scene and most triumphantly rubbisher than MC Miker G. & DJ Sven. Thankfully the guys in the band know it's stupid - in fact it's meant to be stupid (apparently it's got something to do with a brothel owner into whom the band's mysterious financier used to blow his other wad) which is a considerable relief. I mean, can you imagine what crap a band that thought Big Linda was actually a really good name would put out? Probably something as bad as Ocean Colour Scene...ooh...sorry...that's just not possible is it?
Thrown together by chance, circumstance and perhaps fate (if you believe in that sort of shit), Big Linda is a young band with a classic sound - though thankfully they're not blatant rip-off merchants like The Black Keys. Think Black Crowes, Led Zeppelin, Free and Bad Company and you're in the right ballpark. Unfortunately Big Linda is also in the same ballpark as 'Black'-album-era Metallica so I guess you can't have it all.
Yes I'm sure some of you will feel a twinge of disappointment when I say opener 'Suddenly Attacked' shamelessly nicks six-string licks and vocal spits from Led Zeppelin's 'Black Dog' but let me back Big Linda up (not in that way) and tell you that it's all done in the best possible taste. There's a difference between appreciation and burglary. So while vocalist Rob Alder may sound like Chris Cornell doing as dodgy a Robert Plant imitation as is possible, there's no denying the fact that he still packs a mean fuckin' punch. And anyway, if you're gonna sound like two rock vocalists, can you think of anyone better?
Second single 'Golden Girl' and '15 Seconds' are both chart worthy single strum poppers and although 'Another Way' drifts into the aforementioned Metallica territory (let's not go there) it's gloriously trounced by 'I Don't Even Like You (incredulously listed as 'Idelu' on my promo copy; for fuck's sake...) which beautifully combines the absurdly infectious toe-tapping funk of Soundgarden with Led Zeppelin's shuddering riffage.
'Windpower' is all grandiose power riffs and tom-heavy drumming, but there's also a folk-pop sensibility in the mix that makes it sound like something AC/DC would knock out if they started smoking weed and eating leaves instead of drinking whiskey and eating pussy. It's also about two minutes too long and ends up going a bit weird and sounding like a discarded Love album track. And that's a shame because the AC/DC influence rears its head on following track 'Jenny Don't' and that bombastic opening power trip therein that segues neatly into a brisk and breezy head-banger perfectly demonstrates that when Big Linda get it right, they REALLY get it right.
The few downsides include 'Get It While You Can' (Nickelback anyone?), 'Gone' (Collective Soul anyone?) and the mid-paced waste of space that is Just Passing ('Just Shit' anyone?) but these are mere quibbles. There's a decent enough body of work here to earn 'I Loved You' its nine R13 points and based on this evidence, there's every chance that Big Linda's sophomore effort could get them the extra four.