All too often, the bio artists send out with their album is an exercise in grade-school puffery, overblown and counter-productive, overpromising what an album is actually capable of delivering.\u00a0 Not so with Adrian And The Sickness, whose one-sheet definitely caught my attention comparing the trio to the progeny of a hook-up between AC\/DC and the Go-Gos — an analogy I might amend as \u201cthree of the Go-Gos on a triple-date with Angus Young, Rick Nielsen, and Billy Joe Armstrong.\u201d<\/p>\n
However you pair off the group\u2019s obvious influences, the end result on B.F.D.<\/i> is 37 minutes of muscular hard rock riffs wrapped inside a candy coating of power-pop hooks and harmonies.\u00a0 Ah, but the connections between this Austin power trio \u2013 Adrian Conner on lead vocals and guitar, Heather Webb on bass and vocals and Melodie Zapata on drums — and their influences run deeper than even their sound might suggest; Go-Gos bassist Kathy Valentine produced B.F.D.<\/i>, sang harmonies and co-wrote four songs, and Conner and Zapata\u2019s other gig is playing in Hell\u2019s Belles, an all-female AC\/DC tribute band notable enough to have earned kudos from Angus himself.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Opener \u201cModern Freedom\u201d charges in hard on a frenetic pop-punk beat that matches Chrissie Hynde attitude with Green Day riffage.\u00a0 \u201cTurn It Up\u201d takes a more conventional turn, a hooky tune that feels a bit slick, but not in a bad way; I\u2019d compare it to the melodic hard rock feel of a \u201cYou Shook Me All Night Long\u201d — and we all know how THAT turned out.<\/p>\n
The airy but potent \u201cListening,\u201d the first of the Valentine co-writes here, somewhat inevitably reminds of classic Go-Gos tunes like \u201cTurn To You,\u201d a strong and sure power-pop number.\u00a0 \u201cRice \u2019n\u2019 Beans\u201d burns with propulsive energy, and finds Adrian sounding a bit like Sheryl Crow in places — at least until she shreds a Michael Schenker-worthy solo.\u00a0 As for \u201cFight Nice\u201d\u2026 well, let\u2019s just say I was surprised to find this was one of the tunes Valentine DIDN\u2019T co-write; this fiery, foot-tapping, call-and-answer slice of rock and roll heaven could easily pass for a lost cut from Beauty And The Beat<\/i>.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
The kinder, gentler title track shows off Conner\u2019s appealing vocals, before the cowbell-worthy \u201cWhat Ya Do Ta Me\u201d sends the crowd into a head-banging, air-guitaring frenzy.\u00a0 \u201cCommon Ground\u201d follows, offering another terrific bit of guitar-driven power-pop, while \u201cLoser\u201d pushes in a heavier, bluesier direction, with a start-stop dynamic and ripping solo section that would undoubtedly earn a smile from Angus.\u00a0 \u201cNot Sure\u201d is an accomplishment, too — a throbbing, danceable rocker that doubles as a perceptive, rather melancholy self-examination.<\/p>\n
The album closes with a tight, enthusiastic cover of \u201cRadar Love,\u201d a song that fits this group\u2019s character well — direct, riff-driven and heavy, with clever twists and turns.\u00a0 They\u2019re mostly faithful to the original arrangement, but amp the tempo up a bit to give it a slightly caffeinated sound.<\/p>\n
There isn\u2019t a track on B.F.D.<\/i> over 3:35 long, and the pace suits the music perfectly; this is tight, harmony-rich power-pop with just enough of a punk\/hard rock edge to generate a truly combustible mixture.\u00a0 Adrian And The Sickness have crafted an album that lives up to its billing — hard-edged yet melodic rock and roll, tremendously potent and instantly memorable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":30260,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[8544],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-41913","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-adrian-and-the-sickness","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41913","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41913"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41913\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41913"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=41913"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=41913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}