Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10
Rock is as Rock does, it is there to beef up a unique resolve that no other genre really has the right to try and do. Metal, of any type, goes too far, Folk relaxes the body and sharpens the mind to listen to the words on offer as well as the gentle swaying of a guitar or the pomp of a well placed brass instrument infect the mood. Other genres don’t have the pleasure of offering the enlightened Rock fan the Dirty Thrills they so desperately need, desire and deserve.
Charisma though is a pre-requisite, Rock is nothing without it, without charisma you may as well be at home listening to the sound of your next door neighbour sneezing away as the pollen from his garden irritates his nasal passageways. Life without charisma is dull; music, in every shape and form, played without delight in the heart is as bigger waste of time and energy to a nun reading a Mills and Boon book. Thankfully Dirty Thrills and their eponymously named album have the charisma to match what should hopefully be a great career.
The whiff of a late Saturday night in the local Rock club as the gruff sounding D.J. introduces the extra chemical shot to the mind in the form of a new record is uppermost in the thoughts as main-line Rock fans will be taken back to a time when British Rock ruled the world and wasn’t overtaken by great bands from Scandinavia, France and the rest of Europe. Dirty Thrills is that chemical shot, that much needed swallow of a burnt tasting whisky that hits the back of the throat with relief and the patience of a horny angel waiting in vain for the right black knight to come along.
British Rock is not dead, not by a long chalk, but it is sleeping rather unnaturally, it needs groups such as Dirty Thrills and songs such as Burning Bridges, Resume Regret, the superb Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing and The Man Who Lost His Way to kick start a revolution. The need for a great guitar solo, the beat of a dirty bass and the devilish flair of a master of the drums entwining a good vocalist and a set of lyrics that are more in tune with sex, liquor and Rock and Roll has never been in more dire need.
Dirty Thrills are what make the world go round after all!
Ian D. Hall