Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

We have become used to the bombardment of consistent cinematic heroes that we have forgotten what it meant to see a classic derived from the counter culture era, the type of which the anti-hero would step forth and take on our persona, in which the devilish grin would appear and find a way to morph into the face of Jack Nicholson, the smell of certain substances would pervade the watcher’s nostrils and the diffuse the expectations of the forewarned social norm.

It is in the art of the storyteller that albums such as Rod Melancon’s Pinkville reflect the long-lost art of the subversive and the memory of a diversity that rocked the boat, that the period of time after World War Two was revolutionary, fuelled by a regard for the self, whilst never being selfish, an emphatic strike against the world envisioned by the hangover of Victorian society and the disaster of rigid established thought.

It is to the authentic present that the listener is honoured to unwrap, the gracefully sincere groove that comes with the roots of oral persuasion that makes songs such as Going Out West, Rehabilitation, Corpus Christie Carwash, Manic Depression and the appealing polished cover of Bruce Springsteen’s 57 Channels fit in with this tidal wave of noir and autobiography. However, it is to the opening of the album and the title track of Pinkville that the setting is fully immersed within that makes the album a true spectacle, one that sees the artist take to the warped state of narration, of setting the scene as the listener can imagine the sound of rattlesnakes leaving their distinguishable trademark introduction and the grit falling off the boots as each step along the way is marked off with impunity and regret.

This is cinema screen of the aural combat between a person, an artist, and the bleak look on life, surrounded by the joy they hope to bring, the horrors they have witnessed, the sense of love they leave in their wake, and all played out against a distinct movie that captures their soul with sound.

Pinkville is class, uplifting, one that pans across the desert and witnesses the effect of humility and swagger as a combined unit, the scene set and the hero taking charge and the engine of a motor bike given its full deferential turn. Pinkville is an album which captures the soul in its full glare and refuses to let go.

Rod Melancon’s Pinkville is out now and available from Blue Elan Records.

Ian D. Hall