Alien Crime Syndicate
As I was listening to this album a third time, (it took that long for it to grow on me) I read the press release, which described Alien Crime Syndicate as a 'Power Pop Trio'. A what..? The one thing with this album is that it is definately not pop; most definitely rock!
You are given a rock welcome to the album with ‘Forever Is Rock n’ Roll’, yep definitely guitar and bass hitting all the right notes. The drummer doing his thing in the background. ‘The American Way’ sums up a lot of people’s suspicions of America to quote “……don’t give a shit…..”
But one thing this album does remind of is the Glam Rock of the 70’s and some of the American and European bands of the 80’s such as Europe and Bon Jovi. It's thirty minutes of decent rock music. I know it is the sort of rock music that would make the crossover to the charts quite easy and, yes even the odd pop fan would like it.
It is very hard to be critical of an album that seems to have its own inbuilt feel good factor. This is, yes, a good rock album – definitely not pop, and I hope some day someone will explain to me in simple terms what 'Power Pop' is!
There are some great tracks on the album ‘Wake Up Theo’ being my personal favourite. The closest thing to pop you get on this album is ‘The Hustla Life’, a fantastic crossover tune, very much in the early Brit-pop Blur sound.
An interesting album for those that want to hark back to the 70’s and 80’s rock bands. I am sure they are a fantastic live band who put a lot of energy into their shows, as there is plenty of energy in this album. No doubt for this American band there are plenty of big things going to happen.
‘Ten Songs in the Key of Betrayal’, well there are 10 tracks on the album – but it would be interesting to find who they think has been betrayed. I am sure we all have our suspicions.