Gun Club Cemetery: Gun Club Cemetery

359 Music is the relatively new label of Alan McGee, the man who gave us Primal Scream, Oasis and The Jesus And Mary Chain through his Creation Records. Now, truth be told that may be a big deal for some, but other than TJ&MC, I can't say that list does much for me and the other release that I've heard from this new venture - Tess Parks: Blood Hot - left me cold as ice. However Gun Club Cemetery are creating quite a buzz with their 70s tinged Rock and Pop and with their self titled debut effort, it is pretty easy to hear why, even if there's a strong flavour of the expected about it all. Formed round the talents of ex-Hurricane#9 man Alex Lowe (another Creation act, back in the day) and featuring drummer Colin Ward and the much travelled bassist, keyboardist Steve Ransome (well, Steve is credited in the booklet, but Nick Repton is sited and pictured all across the net as being the bassist in the band...?), GCC approach things from a wide and varied, if consistently retro, perspective.

Everything from Bob Dylan, to Lionel Richie, or The Faces to The Rolling Stones gnaws at the mind, however right across the whole album there's an undoubtedly retro-update vibe, with Brit-Pop possibly the strongest real touching point via Oasis, Supergrass or Stereophonics. In the end it makes for a pleasant, if unchallenging listen and to be fair, one that I doubt is aimed at someone like me who failed to connect with any of those 90s acts either, with the exception of Stereophonics. So in the end, "Needle Inside" is an acoustic janglathon that could do with a hefty boot up the arse, "Dead Inside" a Faces-like Stereophonics moment with a convincing guitar solo, "Before Sunrise" a rather likeable piano led track where you can almost sing Lionel Richie's "Easy" over the top (no bad thing in my book to be fair). While "Take Me Down Again" is a Countrified organ and twanging guitar sojourn that is, again, pleasant enough.

In the end it is hard to dislike Gun Club Cemetery, with their touch being authentic and song construction tight and honed. Yet, the strongest whiff here is of familiar safeness, which, truth be told could bring success by the bucketload. If you hanker after a time when Brit-Pop could merge with 70s Rock in a laid back, unchallenging environment, then I can't recommend this album enough. However for me, there's much to like here, just not much you'll remember.

Track Listing
1. The Hollow face Of A Shallow Man
2. Sunset Shadows
3. Take Me Down Again
4. It's In Your Smile
5. We Can't Always Be The Ones
6. Get It Down
7. All I Want From You
8. Before Sunrise
9. No Regrets
10. Dead Inside
11. When You Need A Helping Hand
12. Needle Aside

Added: April 26th 2014
Reviewer: Steven Reid
Score:
Related Link: Gun Club Cemetery on ReverbNation
Hits: 1871
Language: english

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