The Devil Came Down To...England: The Heavy
By Alex on October 7, 2009 in mp3blog
If Gospel music made Jesus cool, then the Heavy have just seriously upped Lucifer's cool factor. Drawing influences from all over - James Brown, Iggy Pop, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, even King Khan & BBQ - the Heavy have released an album that manages to sound both cleanly produced yet also boasting raw power. There are shreds of said Gospel spirituals, but punk also has a firm grip on the band's sound; as a result, The Heavy are juggling a cornucopia of these music influences that one would naturally expect to turn out sounding like shit. For example, track 3 - 'How You Like Me Now' - starts out sounding like the new century's version of 'Papa's Got a Brand New Bag', but this is before the drums kick in. By the end of the track, the added layer of fuzzy piano is reminiscent of 'I Wanna Be Your Dog'. When it ends, the next track starts out with the intro from Screamin' Jay Hawkins' 'I Put a Spell On You.'
Normally, one would criticize a developing band for being unable to make up its mind regarding how they want to sound, but "The House That Dirt Built" instead deserves praise for that same reason. Should we knock them down for making unoriginal music that seems like a mixtape of music from the 60's and 70's? Well, if you choose to do so, go right ahead. All I know is that when I put their album in the record library CD player, something just stuck with me.
I don't know, maybe it was the Devil himself.
How You Like Me Now?
Oh No! Not You Again
Short Change Hero
And a little extra note: Make sure to check out the mp3blog -- AMD's are also posting reviews of the latest digs. Check out James Beck's review of Le Loup , for starters.
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