Living End
Modern ARTillery
| |
The Living End may have extinguished all trace elements of rockabilly from their sound, but that classic, raved-up approach has left their punk-pop with an air of unhinged power. Songs like "What Would You Do?" and "Tabloid Magazine" are all spiky riffs, pop smarts and rock fury.
On the living end's second lp, 2001's Roll On, this Melbourne punk trio thickened its Clash-meets-Stray Cats porridge with AC/DC-inspired riffs; Modern Artillery, cut in L.A. with producer Mark Trombino (Jimmy Eat World, Blink-182), sweetens the recipe with a lot of pure pop. Singer-guitarist Chris Cheney hasn't abandoned his spittle-lubed snarl, but he delivers the unabashedly tuneful "Jimmy" in
Read More an open-throated tenor that suggests this punk has located his inner Rick Springfield. The album's exuberant hookiness can be deceptive: Cheney's new songs are laced with an unease that is by turns general ("Who's Gonna Save Us?") and specific (the eight-minute closer, "The Room," seems inspired by his own scrape with death in a car crash), as standard-issue youthful discontent gives way to mortal dread. Some say that real punk bands shouldn't change, but the Living End continue to advance the form.
|
