Coventry band bound for mixed reviews.LipShock… some kind of car accessory? Or possibly an unpleasant 4am experience - whether that be involving some victim of beer-goggle fantasy, or perhaps a kind of vendor van food. No, actually the title belongs to five disconcerting and rather brutish young men signed to Ghoulish Records, currently preparing for the release of their forth-coming debut album.
Grit n’ Glitter is what you have to anticipate- available in shops and online May 23rd- and composed suitably to grab someone’s attention. Who that someone is hasn’t yet been confirmed, but it is quite imaginable that there’s around three kinds of people who can possibly relate to such a collection of thuggish macho licks and brash invasive clamour*.
It’s practically an explosion in order for Peanut, Mikk, Johnny, Wurzul and Woodsy to officially announce that they have arrived in a sort of brash, depraved, predatory mission for bitches and booze kind of a way - which presumably, has never quite gone to plan.
For all intents and purposes LipShock are a heavy rock band with metal roots streaming in from the days of Mötley Crüe, Kiss, Velvet Revolver, and… Bad News?? If you take it for what it is, then you have good high energy, uplifting riffs, neatly woven composition, and sing-alongable vocals. It’s undeniably well produced and frivolously fun.
But if you were to take it seriously, then generic is unfortunately the word that comes flooding so very fluidly to mind. We as receptors, having experienced decade after decade of sensory bombardment are not being offered anything new or remotely inspiring from Grit n’ Glitter. This spans from vocal style coupled with death metal bands - littered with innuendo and inferably offensive connotation; to conventionally thick riffs, token overdrive, and the occasional motorcycle purr - Cryptic Bitch standing as the perfect example. And after track four the album suddenly becomes extremely repetitive and leaves nothing to the unexpected. Though this album definitely poses the question does music have to be original to be enjoyed for what it is?
Lyrically LipShock are archetypical and outwardly shallow. Divin’ in the Deep End just about sums up the size of it with "Get up and get out, shake that ass about" being the prominent line; painting a perfectly apt picture of equally as depraved women, rustled up somewhere along the lines who presumably walked out unimpressed.
But even the most starched feminists would surely agree that the lads are not completely without their charms, and the charisma cannot possibly be denied of the quintet (not to say fivesome) in the flesh or in the music. Their tunes would make for a good biker bar movie soundtrack if not a Harley advert - therefore losing the band points for originality, yet racking them up tenfold for catchiness. Track six Glamourize repeatedly chants "Sex! Drugs! Rock and Roll! Far! Out! On the dole!". Now would you have Adam and Eve-ed it?
GnG is not however without it’s softer numbers as well (albeit obligated), proving that there’s some real beauty to be found across the 12 tracks. Faith in Lies is the first of the softer tracks, and also one of the better songs on the album. Then Hey Gina starts acoustically, intermittently flows in and out of intense motions, but then really just comes down to a story of a women and her methods of self-gratification. The track does the best job at confirming and almost glamourizing the ignorant macho bullshit theme raging through this record as a whole. Over and Out is the final attempt at gentle and heartfelt, and the strings on this track courtesy of Edd Cotrill are stunning.
Grit n’ Glitter is definitely not for everyone - but it will certainly appeal to those with a taste for retro flamboyant 70’s rock metal. To put it simply the record is by no means of poor quality. But it could possibly come across somewhat like a group of sexually inept predators desperately trying to overcompensate for their inadequacies with a self-assertive, guns blazin’, and shallow onslaught. Though if you take track eight Come Inside as the final example, it just about sums up the lack of seriousness required when listening to Grit n’ Glitter.
*Meat heads.
*Asinine teenagers.
*Anyone concerned extensively with drink and women- apart from Father Jack who would possibly define LipShock as ‘gobshites’ all the same.
"Sex, Drugs, Rock 'n' Roll.... F*cked up, on the Dole" comes from the title track Grit 'n' Glitter. Anyway... from a male perspective, although La Bohemes' comments are not altogether bias, they do seem to be coming from a shallow minded bystander. I don't think the album reflects badly upon women at all, but it is written and performed by blokes and represents a side of the real world some of these women would rather hide their eyes from. Great album, great value for money.
ReplyDelete