In yesterday’s review, I mentioned The Sheepdogs. They are one of those bands that, I’d contend, to see is to love. And similar to Lions In The Street (who’s record I was actually reviewing), to listen to them is to listen to a band that you’re convinced that are singing songs you’ve heard before.
The six songs that make up “Hell Together” are exactly that. You can imagine them writing “Now Or Never” in some sun-dappled West Coast LA house in the 1960s while Crosby Stills and Nash look on. Laid back, relaxed, and just magnificent, it sets the tone in honesty.
“Handle My Biz” might see Ewan Currie “Search Inside until I’m someone else” but the song is so mellow, trippy and blissed out that you kind of feel that once they’ve found it they’ll just get in a hammock and spend the rest of the afternoon off.
The acoustic, “My Home Is Burning”, is built around Shamus Currie’s gorgeous keyboards, and the same sort of warm, welcoming soul that Lambchop always seems to have back in the day. So much so that you wonder if the house was on fire whether they’d be arsed to ring the fire brigade. The guitar solo is perfect too, and new boy Ricky Paquette announces himself.
“Working Man” – the cut that comes right in the middle of this (and I’m betting now that The Sheepdogs call them “cuts” too), is appropriately blue-collar, but it’s never quite Springsteen given the harmonies.
“Jeroboam” likes the vibe so much it does it again, and for all it is a heartbeat away from Gram Parsons, then let’s all doff our caps to the fact it rhymes its title with “pallandrome” which is genius whichever way you look at it.
And that’s before the title track has stuck its head above the parapet, but again, we might have been through “Hell Together” but there’s a calmness about the silver lining here as the piano goes and there’s a guitar solo that The Allman Brothers would be proud of/could sue for (your choice).
That message of hope, though, shines right through in the last line: “We ain’t finished yet.”
This is the second EP that they’ve released in a matter of months, and they sound like they’re brimming with ideas here.
20 years in and they’re only getting started.
Rating 8.5/10
