New Generation Superstars ��
Once again Britain has a new contender in Rock n Roll; the Nottingham based New Generation Superstars.
With some full throttle rock n roll attitude, a few sell out appearances at the Mean Fiddler, Underworld and Rock City and some 5/5 praise from weekly rock mag Kerrang, the Superstars have certainly kicked up a fuss. Whether this will last however is another story. It seems every now and again a new crop of old school balls out ‘rawk n roll’ bands pop up, in turn a whole bunch of hair metal types crawl out of wherever they’ve been hiding and get all excited once again. It never really seems to last though, by album number two they may have made a tidy sum from the first and more likely than not have lost all that eagerness and attitude that made them so ballsy in the first place….we’ll just have to wait and see.
On a non cynical note however the music didn’t disturb me as much as the inside CD sleeve. Long haired men with tattoos posing with their guitars in the most obvious contrived way, certainly doesn’t do them any favours. It looks clichéd and that’s definitely not what you want if you’re trying to be taken seriously. The fact that one of the band members has the name tattooed across his body doesn’t help much either in my opinion, it screams ‘ego’!
So baring all this in mind on the music front it’s pretty much as I expected, fully charged, balls out rock n roll with a splash of punk energy and attitude. The album in question, “Crash Course In Rock N Roll” was actually laid down in only 4 days with Grammy Award nominated producer Alan Smyth (Arctic Monkeys/ Pulp). Although you can’t tell this, I think it must certainly add to the pace, the energy and the eagerness that comes across in the sound. It’s not rushed, but more rough around the edges which I think really helps on a record like this.
Unfortunately I doubt “Crash Course” will win any prizes for originality, it’s not exactly as new and refreshing as they’d like to think it is either. Remember the Towers Of London? What it does have to offer is an old school punk rock edge, an angry vocalist and tonnes of passion.
Basically New Generation Superstars deliver an onslaught of guitar wielding sleaze in a very un-subtle and pretty clichéd manner, but the hair metallers will no doubt love it, the guys will want to be them and the girls will most definitely want them, it’s an old cliché and it keeps on getting re hashed in new form.
I guess the New Generation Superstars aren’t something I instantly dislike, but they’re not exactly something I’d be raving about either. It’s a case of here we go again in some respects. For those that can’t hang up their skin tights and leopard print here’s your new favourite band. Anyone else, dip your toe in if you fancy a dose of sleaze, if not you’re not missing anything much.