Welcome back, dear readers! I’ve got a day chock-full of activity starting with a music review.
Disc 1859 is…Keep Me Fed
Artist: The Warning
Year of Release: 2024
What’s up with the Cover? The Warning (aka the Villerrial Velez sisters) ignore the likely warnings in this restaurant which includes directions like “don’t climb on the tables”. The assorted codgers dining with them react to the failure to acquiesce to such niceties with expressions ranging from mildly perturbed to demonstrably alarmed.
Side note: the center sister is brandishing some sort of centrepiece or elevated fruit bowl, but the way the light catches the archway in the background I kept thinking it was a crossbow. This would be cooler by several degrees but would definitely earn a second warning from the restaurant staff.
“No shoes on the table – and no crossbows at dinner!”
How I Came To Know It: I don’t recall, which is a bit embarrassing since given its location in my “new albums” section, I’ve only had this for about 6 months or so. I probably read a review of it somewhere but for the life of me I can’t find it now. It’s also possible someone mentioned it to me and I checked it out on that basis. If so and it was you, waiting for your recognition, I apologize.
How It Stacks Up: This is my only album by the Warning, so it can’t stack up.
Ratings: 3 stars
I had a devil of a time deciding if I liked “Keep Me Fed” or if I hated it. Was this another entry in a musical style I always enjoy, or a Trojan horse, sneaking sub-par entertainment into the collection, disguised as something better than it was?
The Warning is an all-girl band who play straight up hard rock, with catch hooks and plenty of crunch. Stylistically they sit mid-way between the Beaches and Halestorm.
Yeah, but all that aside – did I like it? Argh. So hard to know. Vocally the Warning have classic rock voices that are built for radio. Big bold vocals with just a bit of grit – but not so much so as to offend. They’re good, but not great. They don’t have the playful cockiness of the Beaches’ Jordan Miller, nor the range and power of Halestorm’s Lzzy Hale. This lack of offence threatened to offend me, and I had to remind myself that very few people have the levels of cockiness and power to compete with Miller and Hale. It’s an OK comparison in terms of describing the style, but you can be plenty good enough without scaling that mountain all the way to the top.
Then there was the production. So clean, so crunchy. Like a bowl of Froot Loops, full of sugary goodness, but also empty calories. All the dials turned up to 11 and then broken off. The car beside you that simply won’t turn that shit down.
But a strange thing happened as I progressed through multiple listens. I would hear a song and derisively think “well, that was an obvious hook” or “that way the guitar comes in and out of the mix is designed to trick me into liking this!” But then I’d begrudgingly have to admit that the obvious hook was obvious because it felt so perfect. The mix was loud, but it sounded great in the car. So great I turned it up even more. I’m sure other drivers around me appreciated it. You’re welcome.
I’d come in looking to be dazzled by something new and innovative. That didn’t happen, but once I let go of that expectation. I realized that I’d almost fallen into the oldest trap set for a curmudgeonly music critic – wanting so desperately to discover something new that you fail to enjoy what’s right in front of you.
“Keep Me Fed” was not a Trojan Horse, forcing its way into the high walls of my august and carefully curated music collection. It was a pinata – a little hard to access at first, but full of sweets once you stop trying to examine it from every angle and just tear in.
And somewhere along the way…around the fourth or fifth time through…another dam broke and I started listening to the lyrics. These are full of damning observations about societal pressures to be a certain way, to behave, to conform, to accommodate – and a healthy ‘hell no’ to such notions. Not exactly groundbreaking, but a worthy and time-honoured rock and roll sensibility that the Warning deliver well.
Yes, this is straight ahead rock and roll. Really solid rock and roll. So solid you’ll be looking for something wrong with it instead of doing what it is designed for: fists thrown in the air, hair tossed about with abandon, and rocking out.
Sometimes you want to dwell over a complex glass of dark wine, and sometimes you just want a vodka cooler on a hot day. If it’s the latter you’re in the mood for, “Keep Me Fed” is just what you may be seeking. So stop thinking about it every thirty seconds and just turn it up. It may just pleasantly surprise you. It did me.
Best tracks: Apologize, Escapism, Burnout, Sharks
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