THE DEAD DAISIES ‘LIGHT ‘EM UP’ ALBUM
RELEASED ON 6TH SEP 2024
For a band that’s been around since 2013 and with six studio albums under their belt in that time, (not to mention live and cover albums to boot), it came as something of a surprise to me that I’d not encountered them before being told “Al, there’s a band here that’s right up your street with a new release out, get your ears round this!”. Curious, especially after a swift Spotify cross reference to see if I was being stitched up made me raise an eyebrow, I ploughed head first into “Light ‘em Up”.
First impression? I’m taken back in the 80s, a time with suspicious cover art vinyl records and big hair! There’s a compilation album from eons ago which set the industry standard for how a rock/metal album of this era should sound. “Axe Attack” it’s called, sporting songs from Scorpions, (the masters of the classic “Don’t let your mother see the cover” LPs), Rainbow, Judas Priest, Whitesnake et al. released in 1980, and any of the first few tracks would’ve sounded at home as an added bonus track! THE DEAD DAISES have mastered the quintessential 70s rock sound and after a little bit of research this comes as no surprise as the blurb which comes with the release tells a story of a band searching to create exactly that. A swift glance at the wiki page tells a similar story, explaining they’ve shared stages (and sometimes bandmates) with the likes of the aforementioned behemoths of the genre so they’ve had some serious examples set for them and boy has it rubbed off!
The eponymous opening track ‘Light ‘em Up’ kicks in sounding like ‘Dc circa ‘Who Made Who’ and that’s never a bad thing. Crisp, clean, catchy and much like the singles from yesteryear clocking in at well under four minutes, it sets the tone nicely. Of the ten tracks on the album, only the final two manage to make it past the four minute mark and it works nicely like that. Everything’s punchy, and you get the feeling that, that’s exactly as it should be. Having racked up 300,000 views on YouTube since its release in May it’s really easylistening, and the subsequent two singles ‘I’m Gonna Ride’ and ‘I Wanna be Your Bitch’follow suit, the latter channelling Alice Cooper, the former again sounding like his last name should be Young!
‘Back to Zero’ drifts more into a Sabbath sound, slightly doomy and again it gives that sensation of a compilation album, similar but differing styles, designed not just to mimic but to build on existing themes and identities. John Corabi handles the vocal with confidence, and the production sounds fantastic, leaning to each differing style so as to accentuate the idiosyncratic changes. A great example of that is the transition to the following track, ‘Way Back Home’, where Corabi enunciates with a hint of Lemmy and the guitar pitch, especially initially, match that theme. Listen carefully to the words “light” and “right” in the chorus, and the solo. It’s almost… almost… a tribute.
‘Take a Long Line’ adds a faster tempo, Michael Devin on bass gets to drive the track, but not for long as it’s the shortest track on the record at 3:08 mins, but there’s still time to showcase the skills of guitarists Doug Aldrich and David Lowy and it doesn’t actually seem short at all. ‘My Way and the Highway” also gives the guitars a chance to shine and I’ve a passing thought that those two songs might well be merged into one in a live performance, something which I may well find out as Dead Daisies are passing through KKs Steel Mill, my local venue, in a few weeks’ time.
The penultimate track ‘Love That’ll Never Be’ is the obligatory ballad, and is basically the antithesis of Thunder’s ‘Love Walked in’ so if you’re still making mix tapes about relationships, you’ve the perfect idea for the first and last tracks right here! It’s done well, covers all the bases, and doesn’t feel out of place because.. while it is different to all that’s come before, it still befits the way the whole release leans in terms of what it’s trying to be. ‘Take My Soul’ moves back to a more rock sound to round off the album, complete with that guitar sound which could be in any release from REO Speedwagon to Saxon!
Having no prior knowledge of Dead Daisies I have to say from track one I knew I was going to have some fun with this album. I like the sounds they’re emulating, and I like that it’s varied enough to not just sound like a carbon copy of that which has gone before. It’s as fun on the fourth listen as it was on its first, and that’s so rare these days that it tells you all you need to know!
They’re professing “Rock is alive and well” in their mission statement?
You’re not wrong guys!
Well played.
