Album Review: Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell, Check ’em Before You Wreck ’em
From opening track “Do It Now,” it is plain as day that Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell is a band stuck in a bygone era. Like many other retro-minded rawk groups, ample attention has been taken to make this album sound like it’s from the early 1970s. And for the most part, this is pulled off pretty successfully — all the instruments sound vintage-y and the production feels like a successful ode to yesteryear.
But that’s not to say that Check ’em Before You Wreck ’em, due out on Tax Day (i.e., April 15, dum-dum!) via Rise Above Records, is a great album — far from it. Winning style and swagger aside, most of the songs here feel erratically structured and the vocals definitely leave something to be desired. However, there are undeniably positive attributes as well. Let’s examine, shall we?
Upon first listen, Hastings trio ASCS (unfortunately named after a 17th century English naval commander) may seem like a dime-a-dozen throwback band but the syncopated main riff and time changes in second track “2 Tonne F*ckboot” had me realizing that this was not the case. ASCS dabbles in deceptively well thought-out moments that are disguised by a straight-forward nostalgic rock sound, and the band’s technique is brought to occasionally dizzying heights by some exhilarating Zeppelin-friendly guitarmonies (parts in “2 Tonne F*ckboot,” “Don’t Hear it…. Fear it!” jump to mind — although how a one-guitar band pulls this off live without a harmony pedal (which is definitely not an OG move) I do not know.
But as I previously mentioned, there are drawbacks as well. The vocals are a bit amateurish in several places — “Captain Merryweather,” for example, suffers from clunky, cacophonous group singing (and too many awkward time changes to boot), and the chorus shoutouts in “Happiness Begins” also sound pitchy (maybe whoever’s singing backup is off?). Furthermore, I definitely found myself hoping for better vocal melodies in several spots. So much more could have been done with some of these choruses (“The Thicker the Better,” for example, could have given us a deliciously hooky chorus, but instead it’s quite yawnfully on the nose).
There are indeed some choice riffs here and there, but plenty of weak ones too — “Don’t Hear it…. Fear it!” is an exhaustingly laborious uptempo jam that settles into a nice smooth breakdown in the middle, only to revert back to the fast riff that wasn’t working initially. Some of the guitar solos aren’t quite as magical as you’d want from a group with this kind of sound, but the rhythm section (especially the drummer — oh man, dat snare could cut diamonds!) has a consistently rich sound though.
This band is at its best when it finds the sweet spot between simple retro 70s cock-rock and a more progressive approach to rhythmic transitions, but too often it ends up feeling too boring (as in “Running From Home”) or trying too hard (as in “Happiness Begins” or the way-too-long “Captain Merryweather”). My favorites are the most grooving of this collection of tunes (“Shaker Your Head” — which majorly recalls Zeppelin’s “Hey Hey What Can I Do” in the main chord progression — and “Bulletproof” both create a nice stomp-boogie down-home vibe, for example).
Every song has a few parts that shine — even the aforementioned snooze-friendly “Running From Home” evolves from an unexciting first half into a deep drum break, some tasty hits, and a rockin’ outro. Herein lies the problem though: none of the songs really stand up too well as a whole. This is thoroughly inconsistent songwriting; none of these tunes feel solid from start to finish, and furthermore, the majority of the songs have lame, showy endings that left a sour taste in my mouth.
If all this wasn’t meh enough, album closer “Late Night Mornings” awkwardly cross-fades from one jam into another, and the result sounds like two different songs are playing at the same time for a few too many moments. I actually had to rewind and make sure I didn’t accidentally have another song playing simultaneously. Why the band wouldn’t turn this gratuitous seven-and-a-half minute track into two different songs (or three, considering the fact that right after the aforementioned awkward transition, the music stops and then starts again with yet another new part) is beyond me, and I love lengthy songs. This final track crystallizes my overall feelings about the band’s approach — too many disparate ideas seem to have been lumped together and called “songs.”
This ADD-esque album is a bit more of a background player for me; when I listen more closely it’s difficult not to find gripes. The retro throwback flavor totally creates the right mood in passing, but the songwriting just isn’t strong enough to succeed overall. Great earthy production marred by consistently inconsistent songwriting = middle-of-the-road album.
Like the man said, the album comes out April 15 on Rise Above. You can stream the track “Do It Now” here.
