23/02/04

DIRTY AMERICANS / STRANGE GENERATIONS

Even if you didn’t know these guys were from Detroit Rock City you could probably guess it. This is rock with a capital R, full on and so commercial it’s almost a crime.

They are like musical Jackdaws, taking only the shiniest pieces from the last 30 years of Rock history. If this CD was a car it would be a shiny red coupe, supercharged and full of chrome extras, right from the start they put the pedal to the Metal and don’t let up until track 6. You speed through 5 great modern Rock songs, full of catchy sing-a-long hooks and the like of "No Rest", "Car Crash", Strange Generation", "Burn You Down" & "Time In Space" are a commercial radio programmers dream.

Their sound is an amalgamation of the Foo Fighters, QOTSA, Zeppelin, Hendrix, Monster Magnet and many more but somehow they gel it together to make it their own. It’s not until track 6 that they drop down into 2nd gear and the Blues driven Rock shows through. "Deep End" is a superb acoustically driven track reminiscent of Zeppelin, the haunting "Dead Man" is like early Ted Nugent"and "Control" could easily be a Hendrix out take.

Overall this is a really good CD, it will get criticized for being commercial but selling as many records as possible is the name of the game.

DOWNLOAD : The title track and "Burn You Down" from either site.

TOTAL PLAYING TIME = 49 mins + 13 TRACKS