Dom Daley
I love me some Replacements,The Get Up Kids and Gaslight Anthem certainly had their moments as did Downtown Struts well you can add New Junk City to that list maybe not at the pinnacle with The Replacements but up there with The struts and Gaslight anthem this Atlanta quartet has gone and made an album about aging and how to stay young at heart and they’ve gone and managed to capture that spirit within the tracks on this album. ‘Losing Side’ has a great tempo and I love the rage in the guitar that kicks in on top of that thumping bass line. There is certainly a hint of Minor threat and the alt-punk scene in this bands DNA and equal amounts of Americana or roots folk if you like not Guthrie folk but inner city folk.
The band certainly has a lot of energy to burn and from the opening salvo of ‘Useless Friends’ that energy is apparent. I remember a time when the likes of Buffalo Tom had some of this spirit and there are touches of that scene here too. Take ‘Come Tomorrow’ for instance with its melodic vocals and jangling guitars playing over the solid rhythm. It’s stirring stuff.
I guess what I’m trying to say is they draw their inspiration from many places but manage to mold it into a very listenable and coherent record that had some real high points and to be fair no particular low points. Even the obvious slow song ‘In Our Blood’ is good with its puffed out chest it’s almost got one foot in the Goo Goo Dolls camp (not modern Dolls but when they still had great tunes).
Good effort all round me thinks I’ll have to go and give that debut album a listen now.
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