Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Chicago just happens to be one of the great American cities, full of wonder, a sense of heritage and iconoclasm having been showered upon it as one of the Great Lakes feeds its natural hunger and gives the city its cold stirring breath in winter and baked beautiful days in summer. It has been the resting place of American Mob culture, of iconic films and even more iconic bands, for example the truly distinguished band that bares the cities name. To the North Canada, to the East New York, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Boston and nothing rivals it as hub of industry and humanity till you reach the southern shores of the country. It is truly a remarkable city. From out of that place in which Lake Michigan freezes and drives an icy blast comes a smashing new band, Vintage Blue, and their album No Going Back.
No Going Back can imply running away, the urge to just wander off and see the world with your own two eyes and never regret moving on. It can also thankfully suggest that when the time is right to produce something very pure, driven and full of flavour, then the urge to put it off, perhaps through fear, perhaps even through trepidation of the hopeful adulation to come; is something to overcome, the art must be heard.
Whichever reason drives a band to do what they do, Vintage Blue have opened themselves up, they have made the chest bare and clean and produced something that is intensely likeable, image ridden and with just the subtlest of hints prowling between each note of some of the American greats to which they obviously have understood and emulated. In no short measure the ears can hear the Eagles at that very best in the corner of the songs that make up No Going Back, the small nod to a band that has captured many a heart and for whom surely inspire band members Benny Bassett in vocals and guitar, Cesar Corral on bass and vocals, Will Crowden on drums, Ryan Tibbs on guitar, Bent Shumard and Matt Zimmerman on baritone and tenor/alto sax respectively.
The expanse of sound is heartening throughout the album, it gives rise to the wide open spaces that linger just out of sight from those who dwell within the metropolitan conurbation, in the skyscrapers, on the streets and who shelter anyway they can to avoid the winds that come off Lake Michigan. The songs give a sense of hope that all can be conquered, that there isn’t a problem that cannot be solved if people actually just listen rather than shouting against the tide.
Tracks such as Remember, Alone (I Can Hear), the sensational Carolina and The Enemy make up a set of songs that growl with anticipation and who deliver with the weight of a howling wind. The promise of a great band from Chicago already fulfilled.
Vintage Blue just might be your next favourite band from the American state of Illinois.
Ian D. Hall