It's not progressive, it's not complex, and it's not testing any musical boundaries, but damn, it's fun!
Hion Martell's label describes them as "Bluesy meat & potato rock & roll with a country touch". An excellent description. Remember J.J.Cale? AOR with good male vocals, wonderful female vocals in lead and backing roles, solid song structure … all good head-nodding foot-tapping rock. It's hard to believe that this band is Swedish rather than from the American heartland.
There are 8 band members here (one of whom is Ulf Petterson, also of Galleon) – and with that big lineup, they manage to very effectively vary the sounds from song to song.
Their full name is "Hion Martell & his Undercover Cops", this is their 4th CD, and the music on PEACE! is uplifting and positive, purelyp song-oriented, with straightforward but memorable melodies. The first track starts with a riff that you could have picked up on your first electric guitar lesson, and that sets the stage for much of the music – but it's okay, it works well in the context of this album. The songs are sung in English with no trace of an accent. The rather simple CD liner is quite fun too – you gotta love those antique nude pictures courtesy of the Erotic Museum of Stockholm (God – we were so innocent in the old days!)
The 11 short tracks are over in 37 minutes and are divided into "North" and "South", LP-style. But you'll have no idea what that means because the CD liner gives very little information and does not include the lyrics. According to Messrs Google and Dotcom, not one other site has ever reviewed their CDs. That is a great pity because this music really deserves to be heard.
Get this album. It's damn good fun.
Track Listing
North
1. AMYDOGG
2. Love On The Floor
3. Cave Girl
4. PEACE!
5. Morning Bliss
6. Pretty Enough
South
7. If
8. Spread Your Light
9. Lies
10.Misty
11.2nd Hand Road
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