We’ve been fans of Axel Loughrey for a while now. While we love most all types of music, we have a special place in our hearts for singers and musicians who really understand Blues!
On this Axel’s debut long-player we get a real glimpse into the musical influences that have made him who he is today. The first half of the album is deeply immersed in blues music, while the latter half varies a little more.
We open with a wailing siren before Loughrey and his band launch into a scuzzy garage infused little number called Snow White Blues, it’s dirty, dingy, short and simple… a perfect intro! We continue on, ploughing a familiar but always fertile furrow with Rosetta, Bad Trip and the wonderfully titled Easy & Sleazy. Each of them do exactly as you’d expect and contrary to popular belief that’s a very good thing indeed, it’s nice to listen to an artist who understands and revels in the traditions of the music he’s making.
It’s as we pass the half-way point and The Key kicks in that we realise Axel is now writing in a different colour. Here we have a track that wouldn’t feel out of place on a mid-nineties US College Rock compilation. It’s a refreshing change of tack that continues with A Room Without A View, a Coldplay/U2-esque stadium singalong in the making!
No No has a bit of a downbeat Britpop vibe to it, unfortunately it also feels rather flat, the production doesn’t give the song a chance to breathe at all. From talking to Axel it appears he, along with producer Owen Morgan, has already picked up on this and the album will have a much more appealing production in the final release.
We had high hopes for Axel’s album… and it appears others did too as he funded it via a Pledgemusic campaign that came in ahead of time and raised more than the initial budget. We have a sneaking suspicion pledgers will be very happy with their investments!
[...] We like Axel Loughrey a lot, we like the fact that while me mixes and muddles styles and approaches there always seems to be a bluesy core to his music. We liked his recent album Crayon Factory quite a bit in fact (you can read the review here). [...]