{"id":13021,"date":"2020-08-29T05:00:58","date_gmt":"2020-08-29T05:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/?p=13021"},"modified":"2020-08-26T19:58:49","modified_gmt":"2020-08-26T19:58:49","slug":"diamond-dogs-weekend-monster-wild-kingdom-records","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/?p=13021","title":{"rendered":"Diamond Dogs – ‘Weekend Monster’ (Wild Kingdom Records)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Following the recent reissues of \u2018Honked All Over Again\u2019 and \u2018As Your Greens Turn Brown\u2019, Wild Kingdom continue their Diamond Dogs \u2018First 10 Years\u2019 reissues with release number three. \u2018Weekend Monster\u2018 brings together their two classic, long out of print EPs \u2018Among The Non Believers\u2019 and \u2018Shortplayer\u2019 on one sexy slab of coloured vinyl, with a new running order and cool as you like new artwork.<\/p>\n

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Laid down in a session just before the recording of \u2018As Your Greens Turn Brown\u2019 in 2000, \u2018Among The Non Believers\u2019 was meant as a taster for the upcoming second album from Sweden\u2019s best kept rock \u2018n\u2019 roll secret. Again in 2001 \u2018Shortplayer\u2019 was a snapshot of what to expect on their third (and finest) album \u2018Too Much Is Always Better Than Not Enough\u2019.<\/p>\n

Legendary producer Tomas Skogsberg takes the helm as usual to capture the 70\u2019s vibes to the max, and it\u2019s the classic line-up on these recordings. So joining long time singer\/entertainer Sulo and keyboard wizard Henrik (The Duke Of Honk) Widen are the likes of Bobby Lee Fett, Mattias Hellberg and Stevie Klasson lending their guitar and vocal prowess.<\/p>\n

The raw recording and deliver y of the title track is a perfect way to open proceedings. A melting pot of The Rolling Stones, The Faces and The New York Dolls is pretty much as good as it gets. An anthemic, live favourite that set in stone the classic sound that this band would take as their own. Guitars all over the shop, swathes of Hammond, but it\u2019s the gritty vocalisin\u2019 from main man Sulo that steals the show.<\/p>\n

Up next \u2018Throw It All Away\u2019 is as good as it gets. Stabs of keys, guitars delivered from the crotch and a classic, timeless chorus. Could a song be any more 70\u2019s sounding in 2001? Creating a sense of euphoria in music is not an easy thing to achieve, but Diamond Dogs deliver in spades again and again. With its lazy, rock \u2018n\u2019 roll riff and great percussion \u2018Lunatic, Eye Rolling Delivery\u2019 is a late night, boogie-woogie jam.\u00a0 Juke joint music, designed to share a whisky and a dance with friends. It sounds like it was recorded live in one take, fuelled by wine, women and last night\u2019s party…I could be wrong!<\/p>\n

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Like a fine red wine, Diamond Dogs songs age well. And it\u2019s safe to say 20 years on that these 10 songs sound as fresh and vibrant as the first day I heard them. Although I must admit to playing these two EPs and the following third album to death when I first got my hands on them. (On a third generation cassette I hasten to add) Remember, no one was doing this sort of rock n roll around the turn of the century. Punk pop was the flavour of the month and to quote Lenny Kravitz; \u201crock and roll is dead! \u201c<\/p>\n

But Lenny was wrong. You may have forgotten, or you may not even be aware how many classic songs this band has in their arsenal. Its song after song, even with these hastily recorded and put together EPs. I mean c\u2019mon…\u2019Poison Honey\u2019 is heartfelt balladry at its best, and \u2018Passing Through My Heart\u2019 could\u2019ve been a long lost Faces ballad for sure. The beautiful backing vocals giving that Jagger\/Richards vibe that many copy but rarely match. English isn\u2019t his first language, but Sulo is hands above his contemporaries in mastering the English language in the context of heartfelt rock \u2018n\u2019 roll.<\/p>\n

They tip their collective hat to their influences with two choice cover as well. The New York Dolls \u2018Pills\u2019 is suitable raw and ramshackle, but The Stones \u2018Connection\u2019, I feel they actually make it their own here, what do you think?<\/p>\n

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The fact that these 10 tracks were \u2018between album songs\u2019 not destined for general release is testament to the quality of songs Diamond Dogs have at their disposal. And while they went on to release many quality albums through the ensuing years, I feel the band reached their pinnacle with their third album \u2018Too Much Is Always Better Than Not Enough\u2019.<\/p>\n

All great bands have a magic period where they can do no wrong and the songs just flow, seemingly out of their control, as if written by someone else. For me, Diamond Dogs golden period was between 2000 and 2002 and therefore this album is an essential vinyl purchase.<\/p>\n

Buy Here<\/a><\/p>\n

Author: Ben Hughes<\/p>\n

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Following the recent reissues of \u2018Honked All Over Again\u2019 and \u2018As Your Greens Turn Brown\u2019, Wild Kingdom continue their Diamond Dogs \u2018First 10 Years\u2019 reissues with release number three. \u2018Weekend Monster\u2018 brings together their two classic, long out of print EPs \u2018Among The Non Believers\u2019 and \u2018Shortplayer\u2019 on one sexy slab of coloured vinyl, with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13022,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[5654,709,5655,2577,5653,3367],"class_list":["post-13021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-image","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-review","tag-among-the-non-believers","tag-diamond-dogs","tag-shortplayer","tag-sound-pollution","tag-weekend-monsters","tag-wild-kingdom","post_format-post-format-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13021"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13021\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13130,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13021\/revisions\/13130"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}