This next album finished #6 on my Top 10 list
for 2017. You can read the full list in the introduction of my review of a
Jason Isbell album back at Disc 1088. Go check it out, I’ll wait.
Welcome back. I’ll assume since you’ve returned,
you want to know what all the fuss is about. Well, read on!
Disc 1309 is… Need to Feel Your Love
Artist:
Sheer Mag
Year of Release: 2017
What’s up with the
Cover?
A big ole jet airliner heads out of a fog bank towards a patch of clear sky, red
engine lights glowing in the gloom. Also, the Sheer Mag logo which I declare to
be…righteous! You can’t see me right now, but I am flashing the devil horns.
Long live rock and roll.
How I Came to Know
It: The way I often find music:
I saw a review, liked what I read, and then listened to some songs, and liked
what I heard. I love it best when my human connections help me find new bands,
but sometimes it is just my own voracious appetite for discovery that unlocks
the door.
How It Stacks Up: I have two Sheer Mag albums (I’m on the
lookout for a third that was just released, but it is proving hard to find). Of
the two I have, “Need to Feel Your Love” is the best.
Ratings: 4 stars
Some albums sink into you slowly, but “Need to
Feel Your Love” is not one of them. This record slaps you in the face and right
when you’re ready to take offence at the affront of it all, dances jauntily
away and all is forgiven.
Sheer Mag is a throwback band that evokes much
of what made the seventies such a great era for rock and roll. They stand
firmly at ground zero of hard rock, with aggressive guitars growling in a way
that evokes Led Zeppelin, Sweet and a host of other luminaries of that era.
While this is likely to be your first
impression of their sound, there is also a subtle groove in these songs, as though
there is a disco record playing in the background. It isn’t enough to bump the dial
off of the hard rock setting, but it does put a little sway in your hips to go
along with all that fist pumping.
The combination makes for a clever new take on
some traditional forms. “Need to Feel Your Love” is not derivative of early
rock and roll, so much as it celebrates it.
The star of the show is lead singer Christina
Halladay. Halladay’s voice rasps away like a rusty kitchen knife. She sings
with a rough high-end growl that reminded me of a female version of Sweet’s
Brian Connolly, with a bit of Girlschool thrown in.
The band is tight as hell, alternating between
funky grooves (“Need to Feel Your Love”, “Suffer Me”) and chunky
rock riffs (“Meet Me in the Street”, “Just Can’t Get Enough”)
with equal brilliance. On “Expect the Bayonet” they deliver a bit of
both, and it’s that subtle amalgam that makes their sound so compelling.
My only slight criticism of the record is it feels
slightly too long. Objectively it isn’t, coming in at a tastefully restrained
12 songs and 43 minutes. It just feels too long. Part of this is that a preponderance
of the best songs appear at the front end of the record. The other thing is that
while Halladay’s voice is a rock and roll revelation, you can only be stabbed
by a rusty kitchen knife so many times before it starts to ache. I might look
for two songs to cut if I could although, admittedly, it would be hard to say
goodbye to any of them.
Overall, this record is a visceral treat for
the ears. Just don’t come in expecting anything soft or smooth. Rock and roll
was never for the faint of heart, and neither is Sheer Mag.
Best tracks: Meet Me in the Street, Need to Feel Your Love, Just
Can’t Get Enough, Expect the Bayonet, Suffer Me
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