Little Caesar released two criminally underrated albums in the early nineties.
One produced by Bob Rock and the other by Howard Benson.
And maybe that's why they failed to penetrate public consciousness.
The band's soulful hard rock, caught in the slipstream of R'n'B, sounded over produced in the hands of these two famed studio technicians.
Often quoted in the same breath as Free,
ZZ Top and The Stones, this is a one-take, live in the studio band. And while the band's songs are memorably melodic, with stadium sized hooks frequently emerging from the steam and the sweat, at its core, the music is organic, back porch rock, never straying too far from its downhome roots.
Vocalist, Ron Young flirted with fame during a short stint with Adrian Vandenberg's one off band and album, Manic Eden, but
Little Caesar is where he belongs, his scorched, been-round-the-block a few times voice complementing Molinari's and Brassler's earthy guitar tones.
Classic rockers, '
Same Old Story' and '
Witness Stand' epitomise the band's music.
The first kicks off the album. This is blue collar rock, populated by larger than life characters and familiar plotlines. The second, written by erstwhile guitarist, Apache, has that deep fried, southern rock, honky tonk tone that The Stones mined so vigorously in their mid life years. Powerful, commercially astute and universally appealing.
The head turning '
Supersonic' and the spare, uncluttered '
Redemption' are the album standouts by a considerable margin. These are immediate yet meaty rock songs that will thrill you with their authentic classic rock simplicity. Both lightly freighted with cleverly structured riffs, sinuous melodies and beautifully crafted hooks that stick like one of Young's tattoos
That said,
'Real Rock Drive' is the perfect rock hybrid, with strands of blues, swampy southern rock and
AOR all woven together into a hand clapping, toe tapping, Saturday night rock song.
At the back end of the album, the band indulge themselves with some spirited cover versions.
There's an obvious Faces / Stones medley : '
Every Picture Tells A Story / Happy', but the band's version of the much covered Joni Mitchell original, '
Woodstock' comes initially as something of a strange choice.
Fear not,
Little Caesar's rambling, tumbling run through this track is as much of an inspired tilt at a Mitchell song as was Nazareth's version of 'This Flight Tonight', and that really is saying something.
So, for lovers of direct, incisive, unpretentious rock'n'roll (that isn't afraid to go off on the occasional tangent), this is a marvellous buy.
Written by
Brian Friday, August 6, 2010
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