N&S Records may soon see this band stolen away by a major.
Like Koritni and
Airbourne in Oz, Finnish band
Whiteflame are one of a crop of European melodic rock bands who're currently cresting a resurgent wave of interest in the genre.
And this band is good. Very good.
Capitalising on the critical and popular acclaim of their debut
'Yesterday's News',
Whiteflame have quickly followed up with the neatly titled '
Tour Bus Diaries'.
No "difficult second album" syndrome here, they've gained confidence from the success of the debut, and it's spurred them on to Olympian heights.
On 'TBD'
Whiteflame have delivered a consistently strong set of songs.
While their music wears a sartorially elegant coat of contemporary rock colours, the sleeves are proudly adorned with the sexually charged hard rock of bands like Aerosmith and The Stones, with the energetic, energising road songs of BTO and Foghat stitched into the lining.
Mining the motherlode of classic rock seems to come easily to the band. Smoking riffs, ringing cowbells, thumping rhythms and heartstopping hooks come at us fast and furious.
A 15 track album is usually 4 or 5 tracks too long for my short attention span to assimilate, but in this case I could have handled more. The quality here doesn't waver. No stumbles, no mis-steps.
There are many gems, but several genuine, solid gold nuggets emerge after only a few spins.
First single '
Tall, Thin, In' - a hot, rollicking rock song with fleeting references to
Queen and The Beach Boys - is an amusing comment on the vacuity of female celebrity.
'No Good' sees a wash of blues bleeding through the hard rock. Authentic, confident, convincing. Maybe the album's outstanding track.
'
Dancin With Her Sister' is a monster of a rock song too. It comes barrelling out the speakers like a juggernaut - powerful, melodic and single minded.
Great production too, with a solid sonic core and always something interesting going on at the edges. Frequently there's as much going on in the shadows as there is in the light.
One of the better albums of the year, so far. Unequivocally.
Written by
Brian Monday, May 18, 2009
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