Over the last couple of years a number of bands have tried to make a name for themselves by making a lot of noise with their guitars and reeling off a bunch of '70s bands when asked about their influences. The Datsuns tried to be the new AC/DC before people forgot about them; Jet tried to mimic The Rolling Stones with limited success and The D4 just made a disappointing album and disappeared.
Now we have a four-piece from Liverpool going by the name of The Black Velvets telling us to, "Get on your life," no fewer than 35 times in just over three minutes. Needless to say, the remarkable insistence to get this specific message across ruins what could be a potentially good record - it's a bit T-Rex, a bit Led Zeppelin, full of swagger and the riff is fairly catchy.
With a degree of hype surrounding them, The Black Velvets have essentially done themselves a disservice by releasing this. It's not that the song is dreadfully bad, it's just not a patch on some of the other stuff out there at the moment. Big but by no means clever.
more