It’s early February 1990. MV would have been 14 years old, listening to Tommy Vance’s Friday Rock Show no doubt, reading about our new favourites in Kerrang! Taping the best ones off the radio.
Into our orbit right then was The Black Crowes. Their “Shake Your Moneymaker” album was all that mattered for a couple of months.
There’s something about that sound even now. And their “Happiness Bastards” return to form this year is arguably my favourite record of the 2024.
Until now.
That’s bad form for reviewing, obviously, and you’re meant to do your big reveal at the end, but rules are meant to be broken. And there’s no point in abiding by regulations when faced with a record like this.
There are times when you know—you know that childlike enthusiasm for music (which should still be there anyway) means you need to go: Holy crap!
And you’ll do it on “Devil Teasing Me,” somewhere between the aforementioned The Black Crowes and Robert John And The Wreck. There’s a moment towards the end when the music stops and Chris Medhurst sings on his own, and it’s perfect.
That it is not even the best thing here is, frankly, astonishing. But look, “Shake You Off” is here to bring its energy and sass.
It’s not even that the music is that original. It’s more the sheer glee it’s played with—the feeling that this band loves the same records you do and was born to play this stuff. That’s a powerful thing.
Ross Hayes Citrullo is as good a lead man as there is, and the combination they find, together with the organ of Miles Evans-Branagh, is stunning, particularly on “The Way I Am.”
The title track changes the vibe. They know it sounds like The Allman Brothers. So do you, and neither party cares—not when it’s as well done as this.
They are capable of a proper boogie—“Gone Without Warning” is one—and they strut, too.
Last autumn, I saw the band open for Samantha Fish and Jesse Dayton. They played “Who Are You” then, and my goodness, it’s got some Jagger lip-curl about it here.
Lean, mean, and a fighting machine for the most part, “Body and Soul” stretches out a bit and strays off the path, not so far that it will lose anyone, but it adds a touch of texture, something that the ballad “When I See You Again” does too, getting reflective and changing the pace. A word here too for the backing singers, Chantal Williams, Nicky Lawrence, and Sandra Bouza, who are frequently brilliant but really add to this track.
If the whole thing has a nostalgic feel (to me at least), then “Too Soon To Know You” really plays on that, tugging on the heartstrings a little. The acoustic “All That We Have” is a glimpse, perhaps, into what the record could have been if The Commoners had taken it down a more folk route.
Back in 2022, while reviewing their second album, “Find A Better Way,” I said this: “The pay-off is quite simply this: if there’s been a better roots rock n roll record this year, then I’d like someone to send it to me, please.”
There haven’t been many better since, so The Commoners thought they’d better sort it. I want to say they got restless and did something astonishing. But this album is too good to resort to puns, so simply put: you should just get “Restless” instead because at some point, everyone’s going to pretend they loved The Commoners, so get in first and look smug.
Rating: 9.5/10
REVIEW: THE COMMONERS- RESTLESS (2024)
![wp-17199613990048594661879452395876](https://i0.wp.com/maximumvolumemusic.com/wp-content/uploads/wp-17199613990048594661879452395876.jpg?resize=696%2C696&ssl=1)
Published: