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July 2001 Vol. 5 No. 8
 
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Artist The Living End
Title Roll On
Label Reprise
Reviewer Joe Hartlaub
Rating
The opening bars of the title track of the Living End's ROLL ON will remind you of...wait a minute, I've got it..."Holiday in the Sun" by the Sex Pistols, right down to the stomping jackboots. Then the beginning of "Pictures in the Mirror" sounds like..."God Save The Queen," by (yep!) The Sex Pistols again. And "Revolution Regained" owes a little something to "Journey to the Center of the Mind." What is really interesting here, however, is that despite these, and other, similarities, the Living End veer off into other territory, sounding like a cross between Sweet and Sham 69 occasionally, Golden Earring here and there ('Riot on Broadway"), and the Yardbirds, with the ghost of The Jam hovering benevolently above it all. And it's great. I mean, if you're gonna be derivative (and what in rock isn't these days) you need to pick your sources carefully. Along the way, the guys throw in changeups that their influences never dreamed of, and do it with enough slickness that you know they aren't just being clever. "Staring at the Light," on the other hand, sounds original enough but if you were around in the late 1960s, and huddled around a shortwave radio hoping to pick up one of the BBC's rock shows, you would swear this was in the top 10. Then there's "Carry Me Home" with it's breakneck chickenscratch guitar and...yeah, it sounds like the Pretenders on their first album, "Tattooed Leather Boys," to be exact. It goes on and on.

But let me be clear here. ROLL ON is full of energy. I love what the Flamin' Groovies used to do with '60s rock, but they were always so obvious. The Living End isn't. They make demands. You might want to stop and figure out the influences and similarities of each song but you'll ultimately get carried along by the songs and forget all of that. And you should. And the Living End is so full of energy and sweat, while maintaining a sense and knowledge of dynamics, that their audience will ---and should--- give 'em everything they want. And then some. You're not going to hear this CD on commercial radio --- most programmers would have no idea what to do with it. What they should do is play it nonstop for an hour each day, to show their peers what rock music could be and how it is played. Highly recommended, and at high volume.

 


© 2001 AMZ/music-reviewer.com
Robert R. Lewis


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