Here’s one for all the pony tailed losers
Around halfway through “One More For The Road”, The New Roses singer Timmy Rough hits the nail as squarely on the head as anyone ever has.
“Life Ain’t Easy (For A Boy With Long Hair)” performs two tasks. First it is basically what amounts to “Someday I’ll Be Saturday Night” rebooted, second it is surely destined to be TNR’s anthem, but there is another, more specific reason for mentioning it here.
It’s third verse is this: “years went by/fashions went then came/everybody changed but I stayed the same/now you try and dress up like a rock n roll star/but you don’t look cool/you won’t get far/what you’re looking for/you can’t just buy and wear/ cos life ain’t easy for a boy with long hair.
Subtext: fuck you nu metal, and you too, grunge, and every other fad you care to name – djent? Purleese!
No, it’s quite simple. The New Roses love rock n roll and they are gonna play it thanks. Oh and they are going to do it brilliantly.
Back in the spring MV was in a pub with them, interviewing them ahead of one of their first UK appearances, and the band were just about as nice as could be. Notwithstanding that, though, Rough had a kind of steel in his eyes when he patiently explained to MV that the new record – their third – they were finishing was the best they’d done.
That’s the type of things bands say – Christ, Axl Rose would have said “Chinese Democracy” was better than “Appetite…..” if you’d asked him before it came out. However, listen to “Quarter To Twelve” and tell us that a) Rough isn’t right and b) it isn’t absolute knockout hard rock.
“My Own Worst Enemy” has the stomp of a filthy bar about it too, “Forever Never Comes” swaggers like Aerosmith did on “Pump” and is the sound of the last gang in town, that said it is simply overrun by “Dancing On A Razorblade”. There is a very real possibility that it is the finest hard rock song since Black Star Riders released “Bound For Glory” – quite honestly such is the glee here that for all the shite that happens every day, the world cannot be a bad place.
TNR are not afraid to get down and dirty if the need arises either. “Consider Me Gone” is the kind of break up MV would like, and its set to funky blues too, for extra fun.
And let’s be absolutely clear, there are very few bands who can write hooks like this. “Every Wild Heart” is proof – not that you’ll realise until its burrowed its way into your conscience and set up home.
There’s the obligatory ballad too. “Fight You Leaving Me” is absolutely unashamed and if it was 1989 then TNR would be number one in 15 countries and on every teenage girls wall, but it isn’t a nostalgia trip and it isn’t some dated spandex clad bunch of nonsense, rather this is a perfect snapshot of where hard rock should be in 2017.
“The Same Moon” is better than anything Black Stone Cherry have managed in years, and appropriately for a record called “One More For The Road”, “Piece By Peace Of Mind” heads off for the fast lane, while the title track itself makes good on the fact that given half a chance The New Roses would become a Steve Earle covers band at a moment’s notice.
As if to prove this is a band who knows no limits right now, there’s three bonus tracks. “Nitro Nights” is the stuff of b-sides back in the day in truth, but “Do I Look Scared To You” should have made the main record.
However, that is a quibble and this is not an album that deserves quibbles. How far it takes The New Roses is for the future, but we’ll say this: ”Slippery When Wet” was Bon Jovi’s third album and no one had heard Springsteen’s first two. They sure know “Born To Run” though – and what is wrong with dreaming? Maybe, just maybe. Whatever, the road deserves to be paved with gold.
Rating 9.5/10
