Name, line-up and attitude changes and of course “jumping on the wagon” of no alcohol have really done this bluegrass tinged, alternative rock, Dublin 5 piece the world of good. The long awaited debut album from The Last Tycoons is finally hitting stores tomorrow, April 2nd.
The album is inspired, and very different to the bedwetting, semi-alt rock the airwaves are saturated with, and yet the bluegrass sounds are very familiar and pleasing to the ear. There’s a hark back to the earlier days of rock, and one can hear early Rolling Stones, or The Band throughout this record. The vocals sound almost strained, and yet emotive, and the backing vocals are utilised brilliantly overall moving either in harmony or with antiphonal dialogue at times. The instrumentation ranges from your typical guitars and drums to the Glockenspiel and Trumpet, so as far as musicality goes, this band has that and some to spare. You can tell from the word go on this album that the musicians know exactly what they’re doing.
The highlights of the album are “Don’t Let Me Catch You”, “Seven Days (Off The
Road)”, “Alaska Hotel”, “The Love Song” and the single “The Dry Law”, but don’t let that put you off as the rest of the album is first-class.
As weird as it may sound, the record has a very “spring” sound to it, and will be the perfect edition to the airwaves on these less than sunny days. Overall this is a very solid record, with some very catchy tunes to boot. If these guys haven’t played all the major music festivals world wide by this time next year, it will be a complete sham.
[xrr rating=3.5/5]
The band are doing an album launch this Saturday in The Village, Dublin details of which can be found here. They then set off on a mini tour around the country to promote the album throughout April and heading into May. Dates can be found on the band’s MySpace. They’re also on Twitter and Facebook so check them out (they even have streaming of some of their tracks on Facebook!).
