Review by Ritchie Birnie for MPM
The old saying goes if you can’t beat them join them so The Cold Stares having been dubbed a Southern band for so long decided to face up and lean into it and have produced the sweet taste of a southern Summer sprinkled with hits and groove.
The album opens on “Horse to Water” and it goes from a slow AC/DC blues track to a coupling of Black Crowes and Free. This slow burning number just slithers and crawls through the blueprint of everything Southern with guitar work that adds another dimension completely.
Single “Coming Home” is next up and this has thrown its hat completely to that Deep South noise that you all know and love. A song built on being far away and…ahem, coming home. Home is not a place, its is hereditary just as sure as blue eyes and ginger hair are. It is in the blood, it is in the soul and as someone born in the valley of Ben Lomond in Scotland it encompasses everything in my life both good and bad. Childhood, teenage shenanigans, parenthood and adulthood and as much as I have always been patriotic it took living in England for 14 years to cement what home is and this song encompasses the feeling of home whether it be Glasgow, Kentucky or Glasgow, Scotland.
Talking of Glasgow Scotland we know a thing about “Looking for a Fight”. This quick riffed track bounces along like a head on a pool hall floor. The song is a sucker punch to the head followed up with a bottle of Whisky to the temple and the break down is a distorted guitar fest harking back to 70s Sabbath and the impact is just as powerful.
Southern always skates precariously close to Country at times and “Blow Wind Blow” is this albums Dixie moment crossed with a sprinkling of Hendrix as he covered All Along The Watchtower. Chris Tapp excels on both guitars and vocals here. This is a beautiful number that I listened on repeat for some time.
That little Hendrix groove continues on “Confession”. There is an urgency around this song and it has a 1970s UFO feel. The 12 years as a band has taken this band far and wide and they are finally getting the recognition they deserve, all due to tracks like this.
Get the headphones on for “Level Floor Blues” and bask in the percussion heaven laid down by Brian Mullins. The stripped back intro with the two old friends is sublime and this is Blues 101 and right in my sweet spot. Old fans will love this and there will be so many more fans when this track gets out.
The percussion lessons continue on “Seven Ways to Sundown” and if anyone ever asked for a song that encapsulated the feel of a western movie this is the track. It may be time for Bon Jovi’s Wanted Dead or Alive to sit down and shut up as this little fucker is going to whoop its ass in any dusty town shoot out.
With a name like “No Love in the City Anymore” I am always going to think of Whitesnake and one off the best live albums and songs ever but the fact this song took me in a completely different direction and outshone that song for three and a half minutes means it is sheer magic.
Time to go full on uptown funky on your ass with “Giving it Up”, the tempo is up like a gas pedal on the floor and it has a twist on the blues that only the legendary Rory Gallagher did and the fact that this man is mentioned is all the homage that this song needs…it kills.
That stoner, Sabbath riffage is back on “Woman”. This is the epitome of ZZ Tops self explanation of their sound…four deflated tires in mud. I can’t agree with the songs message as for me the fairer sex are nothing but trouble but it sure makes for one hell of a song.
The album finishes off with “Mortality Blues” and what a way to go out. There can be nothing that conjures up the feeling of the South like this song does. The Southern is an incredible album, if you love Blues buy it, if you love Southern Music buy it and if you love well written, well played songs that you will instantly align with buy it, you will not be disappointed.
Track Listing
1. Horse to Water
2. Coming Home
3. Looking For A Fight
4. Blow Wind Blow
5. Confession
6. Level Floor Blues
7. Seven Ways to Sundown
8. No Love in the City Anymore
9. Giving It Up
10. Woman
11. Mortality Blues
Pre-order The Southern here – https://lnk.to/TheColdStares
23 Aug – Sønderborghus Sonderborg, Denmark
24 Aug – Karosserifabrikken, Helsingør, Denmark
25 Aug – Music Star, Norderstedt, Germany
26 Aug – Music Star, Norderstedt, Germany
27 Aug – Hafenbar Tegel, Berlin, Germany
29 Aug – Musiktheater Piano, Dortmund, Germany
30 Aug – The Carlisle, Hastings, UK
31 Aug – Ropetackle Arts Centre, Shoreham, UK
1 Sep – Sunflower Lounge, Birmingham, UK
3 Sep – The 1865, Southampton, UK
4 Sep – New Cross Inn, London, UK
5 Sep – The Bourne Music Club, Sittingbourne, UK
EU/UK tour dates:
Tickets HERE
