The Blueskins have seemed to sneaked up upon us this year. Releasing their Magic Road EP late last year and now following it up with the full debut album 'Word Of Mouth', I find myself writing a review for a band I had hardly heard of. From the start of the album the listener's attention is grabbed by both hands and shaken until the end of the eleventh song.
I think any album that stands out must have an overriding quality that compels the listener to listen again and again, and more importantly differentiate the band from the mass of bands jumping on the wagon. The Blueskins try and achieve this by effectively morphing their style of music through out the album. At the start they sound like a bluesy Rock'n'Roll band with influences being drawn from Rolling Stones and then mixed with the up tempo march of a band like Terrorvision. Through out the album there is a large dose of the Libertines. And then the morph begins, all of the sudden by Love Boat we are dealing with The Coral and The Seahorses with the searing guitar solos in songs like Girl.
A fairly large range has been covered by the Blueskins, and dare I say it, a large enough range to guarantee they capture the largest listening audience possible. Sometimes it can seem like it is a desperate attempt to find a fan base, but in this case I think it is a clever marketing ploy. A new band needs a grounding and to produce an album that reflects the current popularity of bands like the Coral and Jet is a means to become a Face in the crowd.
Standout tracks are Bad Day, Girl, Love Boat and Magpie Blues.
There is a large part of originality with the album, I didn't feel ripped off as I did with the Cribs last year. I hope to see a lot more of these guys and am looking forward to seeing them live some point soon.
*** Like The Coral, The Seahorses, The Rolling Stones, Jet ***