Crackin debut
It's great when a new band appears on your radar that you've never come across before. Not only that, but when its coupled with great ‘US rock-radio’ friendly songs, anthemic choruses, thunderous riffs, together with a ‘fresh’ approach that knocks you off your feet, it's very pleasant indeed. Hopefully you get my drift as to what to expect
The Crave hail from the non rock area of Brighton, and have come up trumps in getting Mark Flannery to produce this set of cracking, uplifting songs. Mark's been involved in some great projects in his past, the very underrated Sabbath album ‘The Eternal Idol’, and the brilliant ‘Hysteria’ by Def Leppard. So there’s no questioning his credentials. The songs are highly charged, electrified to the point of being used as an alternative power source, so move over E-on i've switched my energy supplier!
The band comprises of Ryan Burnett - Vox, Guitar, Carlos Garcia - Guitar, Tom Swann - Bass, and CJ Evans - Drums. All the 12 songs are written by The Crave, and they’ve certainly found a winning formula. Opener ‘The Stray’ is an all out, anthemic pop/rock crossover song that has ‘hit single’ written all over it. Its a simple enough song, not overblown or overstated, but seriously kicks some ass. If a comparison has to be made, the closest band I can come up with is the Foo Fighters. If the Foo Fighters played this, we’d all be singing it. The comparison with them is well deserved, the song is as good as a Grohl composition. It also sets the stall out for the rest of the album. ‘Bring it On’ continues in the exact same vein: catchy, infectious and fun inspiring music played loud with the top down. The potential ‘hit factory’ continues with ‘Headlights’, the brilliant ‘My Little Secret’, ‘High’ and ‘Lost In You’. The flow of songs is excellent moving from one charged riff to the next, leaving you breathless along the way, the pace hardly ever faltering.
The Crave have gone for a very US feel to their songwriting, and it is this market that will sit up and take some notice. They also deserve to be huge in their homeland. If The Crave don’t become a household name then there is something seriously wrong!
Great, great debut. Along with the Shinedown album, ‘Anywhere and Everywhere’ is a contender for my Top 5 albums of the year, and its still only Feb!