In a move that will interest no one (but hopefully will make this review more understandable) I put the albums I am going to review on my iPod in a playlist. Because I like a lot of different styles (precisely why this website is called Maximum Volume MUSIC) these are often quite disparate.
So it was that I was driving the other day listening to singer/songwriter stuff that was somewhere beyond dreary (lets just say that BR. Lively is wrongly named and leave it at that, yeah?). Finally I lost the will to live, and flicked onto the next thing.
Now, because I was driving I didn’t know what I was hitting on. What it was, though, was track three of the second album from Denmark’s I’ll Be Damned. “You Are The Young”: First line: “hey, hey, get up and get mad…..” over a strutting disco beat like Electric Six at their punkest.
That’s more like it – crack on.
So, finding the first song, I was predisposed to like them anyway, before reading the title. “Stephen Hawking Talking”, which has more life in five seconds than the aforementioned Mr. Lively had managed in his five songs.
And even if you don’t like the turbo charged Hellacopters nature of the track, then consider this. The first words on the album are these: “the greatest impediment to knowledge, is not ignorance, but the illusion of knowledge….” Which when you think about it is absolutely true – not to mention quite a feat to get in a rock n roll song.
So if track one is trashy as you like, and track three funky as hell, what’s track two, “The Entire Universe”? A full on psychedelic stoner thing, that’s what. All of which quite neatly proves that most bands don’t do what IBD do, and IBD don’t give a monkeys.
And so it goes. “Pig Burner” features deathsters Baest, and is pretty guttural as a result. If that’s your bag than fair do’s. Me? I am happier with the bluesy “Luck Could Change”.
“Flag Follows The Money” on the other hand pulses like something out of the mid-90s – reminding these ears of something early Feeder might have done at their best – while if you need me to explain why a Motorhead -style boogie called “Keep Warm Burn The Rich” rules then if I’m honest you are reading the wrong site.
I genuinely can’t recall reviewing an album like this before. “Just Ain’t Right” is a mid-paced Euro power metal influenced thing, right down to the orchestration, which is followed up by a Pantera style southern boogie, which in turn comes before the sprawling, somewhat eerie “Arrow Of Time (Road To Disorder)”.
All of which means that this is one of the least cohesive records known to man, and whilst some work better than others one thing you can certainly say is that is never dreary. Which is a bonus.
“Road To Disorder” is what it sounds like is when a band makes their own compilation tape. And I’ll Be Damned, it is compelling.
Rating 7.5/10
