What members of Little Angels, Furyon and The Jeevas do for fun, and it’s so very nearly brilliant
It’s been all go in the Colour Of Noise camp recently This record was actually released last week. The rush meant MVM had only heard about half of it before watching the first night of UK tour.
On stage the band were pretty thrilling, and while the record sounded great, it didn’t – after that initial cursory listen – offer the same type of visceral excitement.
Then there was a return listen, then another, and another and…(well, you get the point) which enabled a conclusion to be reached: for an album with a track on called “Drive It Like You Stole It” you do wish it would release the handbrake ever so slightly a couple of times.
Because there is a lot to like about TCoN – both the band and the record – and it’s not a bad record at all, in fact it’s a very, very good one – but frustratingly it could be damn near perfect.
The personnel here are immediately eye catching. Vocal duties are handled by the brilliant Mat Mitchell (Furyon) while Bruce John Dickinson from the mighty Little Angels is on guitar. If that’s not enough to convince that this is something you must check out, then Randy Nixon on drums was in The Jeevas, if that sways you. And by the way, it’s mixed by Mike Fraser, who has worked with hard rock royalty Aerosmith and Bad Company.
With a cast this good, then “The Colour Of Noise” is never going to fail and make no mistake it absolutely does not. There are though, a couple of times – for example on opener “Can You Hear Me” – when you wish it had a touch more devil. You want it to be bad to the bone when it’s only just a little naughty.
When it happens that TCoN do let their hair down totally they are absolutely fantastic. The drug addled “Medicine Man” is unrepentant, bluesy, hip shaking brilliance, and “You Only Call Me” gets its hair swinging in the breeze and it’s middle fingers in the air.
Best of all, however, are its magnificent last two, “Rock Bottom” – marvellously and you’d imagine intentionally – ACDC influenced and “Great Day For Rock N Roll”, which takes Led Zep as its starting point and adds a healthy dose of groove to finish the brew.
A few of the others get nearly as good and for some reason rein themselves in. “Head On” restrains itself when it really wants to be a balls out rocker and “Heavy”, which live was a stomping, temperamental beast of a showstopper, here only musters a little tantrum.
This is very nearly an album of the year contender. If The Colour Of Noise can harness their live sound next time and perhaps lose a touch of polish in the process, the next one might be.
Rating 8/10
