Monday, May 2, 2011

Black 'n Blue: "Hell Yeah!"




Rating: 7/10

Label: Frontiers 2011

Review by Alan Holloway

Somewhere, there must be people with big hair who have been salivating over the prospect of a new Black n Blue album. The mid to late eighties saw the band release some good, catchy anthem led albums, but they were never anything to write home about, although they certainly had a knack for writing songs that had catchy singalong choruses. The good news is that nothing much has changed, and the bad news is that nothing much has changed - you make your own mind up about which is true.

Black n Blue are a genuine throwback to the heyday of glam rock, throwing about various cut and paste influences as Kiss, Y&T and Skid Row, with plenty of Motley Crue creeping in as well. Naturally, this all means that when it all comes together properly, as on “Target” or “C‘mon” for example, it’s all quite a lot of fun. Sure, some tracks like “Hail Hail” (a very Kiss alike fist-in-the-air thing) it can all get a bit embarrassing, but if you’re with like minded people (or it’s just you and the cat) you won’t be able to resist singing a long.

As well as the twelve tracks, there’s a couple of pointless short piss abouts, namely “Jamie’s Got the Beer” and “A Tribute To Hawking”. Both probably seemed hilarious in the studio, but they’re really just stupid. That said, the twelve full tracks on offer are guaranteed to entertain anyone who got off on the band’s original releases, but don’t expect any miracles here. If you like good old fashioned thumping sleaze like wot they used to make when I were a lad, you could do a lot worse that raise your fist and yell “Hell yeah!”


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