Music Review by EDF
New bands fall into two categories, those that come up with something new and innovative and those that rehash an old sound that sounds familiar to the listener. American three piece ROAD are of the latter, which is no bad thing but regardless of which category you fall into, there has to be decent songs and Road have not got a problem in that department. Opening up with “She Never Cried”, you would be mistaken to think that this song had been recorded sometime in the early 70’s. This has something to do with the way frontman and lead singer Paul Waters’ vocals have been recorded. While the opening tracks are in no doubt rock, there is a hint of a West Coast sound that creeps in on some of the tracks.
“The Punch” dips into the late 1960’s thanks to an organ riff that is prominent throughout the song. Another late 60’s sounding track is the trippy “Burn, Baby, Burn” which has an experimental Beatles feel to it. There is more pop/rock retro to be found with the title track “Whisky Midnight”. The acoustic blues “One More Chance” reveals another side to ROAD that you kind of suspected from what you heard up to now. “Going” resembles the sort of folk song you would have associated with the defunct Harvest label. Of course, when you first hear “If You Want Me”, the first thing that comes to mind is The Rolling Stones and you will know what I mean when you hear it. There are also the by-the-numbers tracks such as “Meredith” and “Where You Go” that just seems to miss the mark but would nevertheless be great live. This is one of those albums that use a lot of studio production tricks to give the songs their unique sound and it will be interesting to see how the band sound in a live setting.
