Genuine (label)
29 January 2007 (released)
09 February 2007
On my first listen to Little Barrie, I dismissed them as just another half decent retro nod to 60s rock n roll. However after listening to it properly and at a decent volume, Little Barrie starts to take it's own form and evolve into a beast of it's own making.
The opener 'Bailing Out' kicks in with it's lopsided drums, funky guitars, Barry Cadogans soulful vocals and a progressive bassline wrapped around the whole tune, to provide 2 minutes of clean, crisp rock n roll. This is followed by the recent singalong single, 'Love you' and the infectious 'Pin that Badge' and the album starts to take shape clawing in, kicking and screaming it's influences of 60's pop, rockabilly, rock, soul + indie. I can hear echoes of the old favorites, Beatles + Stones, along with Early B52s, Gene Vincent, The Faces, The Black Keys, Primal Scream (Barrie used to play guitar for them on tour) etc etc etc
Dan The Automator and Mike Pelaconi take charge of Production and seem to have managed to be able to take tracks like 'Green Eyed Fool' and 'Pretty Pictures' and turn them from Straightforward modern Rock n' Roll tunes into deep dirty beasts, yet still retain the crisp edge on the overall sound.
Towards the end of the album the band get back to their rock/blues roots in full Black Keys Style, in fact if you replaced Barrie's vocals with Dan Auerbach's much gruffer tones I'd swear you'd switched CDs and put on a new Black Keys song.
Theres no getting away from the 60's influences of this band, but theres few other bands around at the moment who do it as well as, and with such a refreshing edge as Little Barrie give us...
