No question, these guys knew how to rock.
This is 2003's magnificent comeback album, '
Twelve Shots On The Rocks' reissued with four bonus tracks.
There's a golden glow to the band's hugely influential sound and trashy aesthetic here. The songwriting is right on the money, the performances inspired and the production is jawdroppingly awesome. The McCoy/Monroe chemistry was still as fresh and as potent as ever.
On
'Twelve...'
Hanoi Rocks quite deliberately paint from a limited sonic palette, but with the textures they trade in - punk attitude, clanging, spiralling guitars and stack heeled choruses - they do so with a well founded confidence and an almost unnerving conviction. And, by the way, these are some of the most aurally adhesive melodies they've written. Ever.
The first six tracks are as sonically and melodically powerful as any six track sequence you're likely to hear anytime, anywhere. As the album unfolds beyond that, the material isn't quite as immediate, and in places doesn't seem quite as finished.
But really good songs often need you to stay with them for a while, before they take hold.
Proving that easy triumphs aren't always the most rewarding are the deceptively simple '
Lucky' and
'Watch This' - trashy glamrock, teetering thrillingly on the edge of chaos.
One of the most appealing things about
Hanoi Rocks is the fact, despite the worldliness of the lifestyle they convey, there's an apparent vulnerability that comes across on songs like the balladic
'In My Darkest Hour' and on the unrequited love of country glam song '
Designs On You'. 'You could go surfing on the tears that I have cried'. What a great lyric (and what a great tune).
Elsewhere, standouts, and there are plenty, include the springheeled, Quo meets Sweet, '
Delirious'; the New York Dolls-with-a-better-tune
'Obscured'; the Bowie-esque, genre transcending '
Bad News' and the fabulously anthemic pop metal of '
New York'.
Somewhere in the roaring racket of '
Gypsy Boots' there's a great tune trying to find a way out, but is secretly enjoying its pub rock surroundings, and in '
A Day Late, A Dollar Short' there's a wonderful slice of deceptively simple, neon lit pop music. And a perceptive piece of contemporary philosophy.
If only all "comebacks" were of this standard.
Written by
Brian Friday, June 29, 2007
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