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<\/a>US guitar romantics The Cry! have been pretty quiet the last few years. In fact, it\u2019s been 6 long years since their fantastic sophomore album \u2018Dangerous Game\u2019 hit our turntables. Rumour has it, the band has studio time booked in the spring to polish off the follow-up. In the meantime, their illustrious frontman and main songwriter Tommy Ray (Nelsen) is flying the flag releasing tasty rock \u2018n\u2019 roll records. Tommy follows up last year\u2019s \u2018The Decayed: PDX PUNX\u2019 album with a new long-player entitled \u2018First Hits Free\u2019 and what a banger it is.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u2018First Hits Free\u2019 is a collection of Tommy Ray songs that The Cry! passed on for one reason or another. That\u2019s not to say these songs are substandard, oh no, far from it. These songs follow the same retro, low-slung power pop route of his day job for sure. If you dig the raw and emotional pop punk delivered by the likes of The Speedways and Cyanide Pills on this side of the pond, then watch out boys, as this Portland, Oregon based songwriter has the minerals to mix up the sounds of The Heartbreakers (Thunders, not Petty), The Attractions and The Buzzcocks like the last 40 years never even happened!<\/p>\n
Tommy Ray delivers raw and unadulterated rock \u2018n\u2019 roll straight from the heart. Opener \u2018Ain\u2019t No Use\u2019 fills the speakers with raw guitars, pumping bass and urgent beats, topped off by a tinkling of the ivories, a nonchalant vocal delivery, and a melody to die for. Single \u2018Life Goes On\u2019 follows, with its cool Yaffa-like bass rumble, handclaps and irresistible gang vocal you\u2019ll be hooked after the first listen.<\/p>\n
Do you miss The Biters already, or are you still shedding a tear over The Exploding Hearts? Well, dry those khol stained eyes, as Tommy Ray has a handful of songs that are just what the doctor ordered. Yes, the production is raw, but it matters not one iota when the songwriting is top-notch and the delivery is sincere and from the heart. You could say songs of broken love and reflection have never sounded so upbeat, but Tommy has that knack, that certain something that makes his songs stand out from the crowd.<\/p>\n
\u2018Hey Suzanne\u2019 is a glorious combination of Costello and Strummer goodness, punk with pop sensibilities, something that not a lot of young songwriters get right. The glam slam 70\u2019s stomp of \u2018Voices\u2019 hits in the feels for sure. Gloriously upbeat and as ramshackle as you like, it\u2019s a riot from start to finish, as the singer snarls his way over cool guitar riffs and big beats like Hanoi Rocks in their prime. You will swear you have heard the likes of \u2018\u2019Good Love Gone South\u2019 and \u2018Trouble\u2019 before, such is the instant feel of the catchy melodies.<\/p>\n
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As a whole the songs on this album make the majority of Tommy Ray\u2019s contemporaries sound dull as dishwater. Who wants to hear a half-arsed, bedraggled Indie boy staring at his shoes recounting how unfair his life is, when Tommy Ray is living his best life like the bastard son of Johnny Thunders and Joe Strummer.<\/p>\n
If these are the songs that didn\u2019t make the highly anticipated 3rd<\/sup> album from The Cry! then they should have one hell of a record under their studded leather belts. We await that album with baited breath, but until then bask in the glory that is \u2018First Hits Free\u2019, the first great new album you will hear in 2020.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n