Six Shooter (label)
21 October 2010 (released)
18 October 2010
Luke Doucet has a great sense of passion in his music and enough rough edges to wear through a steel pocket – and it is all good.
There are at least three ‘killer’ tracks – ‘Thinking People’ has a buzzsaw guitar and driving drums and a real Iggy groove going on while his lyrics are enough to make you remember them – his rap is real blue-collar polemicry. ‘The Ballad Of Ian Curtis’ has some of the feel of Joy Division but a lot more of the feel of Curtis’ lyrics and some fine guitar lines and ‘Magpie’ is a delicious folk ballad with lovely harmonies and simple acoustic guitar. Of the rest ‘Dirty Dirty Blonde’ is a raucous and sleazy bit of rock, the lyrics to ‘Love And A Steady Hand’ are clever and, probably, very dirty and ‘Some Of You Folks’ has a real REM feel and is a good way to close the album.
The band are not ‘out of the box originals’ – there is a lot in their music that sounds as though you have heard it before – but there is a hell of a lot of good playing and some good songs and I don’t think that any of the 11 tracks are less than good.
Their version of Gordon Lightfoot’s ‘Sundown’ has a lot more punch than the original and they have taken the twee-ness out of the original and added some threat and once again the guitar is excellent.
These guys have given me a half hour of really good music – well worth their stars.
