Opening and title track '
Whatever gets You Off' will vividly remind you of
Cinderella's explosion onto the music scene with singles 'Shake Me' and 'Nobody's Fool'. A band whose greatness took the wrong direction for popular success.
It's glam, it's rock, it's garage, its production sounds like it's had the GDP of the European Union spent on it.
And considering it's been recorded under the wing of Nikki (MC) Sixx, with Marti Frederiksen and DJ Ashba co-writing and producing with Sixx and the band, the quality and the bandwidth should be no surprise.
Second track
'I'm Bad' takes a while to sink its hook, but when it does there's a big payoff, revealing itself only to the tenacious and the persistent. It's a track that'll maybe make you think of how
Wigwam should sound if they shook off their pop pretensions and grabbed themselves some rock'n'roll attitude.
The number of influences taken in by
'Loose Lips' is mightily impressive. There's the hard drivin' southern rock of the Allman Brothers and Lynyrd Skynyrd; then there's the metallised blues of latter day
Cinderella and Tesla. A carefully cooked concoction, designed to appeal to a wide demographic.
Then you get to the halfway point. You're thinking that front loading means you've now reached the stuff that just made the cut.
Then you get to
'Apologies'. This is the album's absolute killer cut. By a huge margin. Imagine
Cinderella's 'Nobody's Fool' grafted onto the best stuff from Tesla's recent 'ForeverMore' release, with a little help from the Fab Four. Powerful, moving. A track that plants it seed upon first listen and sees it grow and grow with each spin thereafter.
They lose a bit of momentum when their garage roots suffocate the other influences, as on
'Another Lover'. But it's only a temporary glitch.
A swagger to the finishing line, always maintaining an enviably insouciant cool is assured by best of the rest tracks,
'Cherry Red', a song with a thrilling, radio friendly
Autograph feel, and '
White Lies', just bursting with full blooded harmonies and raspy vocals, punching out a pulse quickening chorus and a heartstopping hook.
If
The Last Vegas don't fall victim to that "difficult second album" syndrome they could be a real force.
Written by
Brian Sunday, May 31, 2009
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