Dirtbag Republic: Tear Down Your Idols

How many times has Gene Simmons told us all that rock is dead? Well, here come Canada’s Dirtbag Republic with their third album, Tear Down Your Idols, to tell him it was all his fault. Well, not just Gene’s, or indeed Paul’s, but all of the rock idols from years gone by who are now padding their nests with deluxe boxsets and ‘demos from a garbage bin’, or at least so go the lyrics to this album’s title track.

It’s an interesting point of view, but for me, the issue goes deeper than that. If KISS, Pink Floyd, Neil Young, Metallica or whoever you want to name that’s putting out old recordings in shiny new boxes suddenly stopped doing just that, or playing enormodomes, would their fans turn round and point their cash at young talented bands? I know what my guess is, because there’s a ton of great new music out there right now from outfits who should have already made the breakthrough but can’t, with even younger acts already snapping at their heels.

Anyway, I digress, the other issue with a band pointing criticisms in the direction of their peers is that they better bloody well be delivering the goods themselves, and for me Dirtbag Republic undoubtedly are, but not in a way that’s going to set the musical world to rights. Pulling influences from Hanoi Rocks, Aerosmith, Cheap Trick and Michael Monroe, this quintet decide to add a punchier edge, taking proceedings into an area already safely under the control of The Wildhearts. Don’t get me wrong, the piano infused punk n roll of “Don’t Answer To No One� is blazing good fun in a drunken singalong kind of way (is there any other?), while the title track that I’ve maybe unfairly singled out injects more urgency and hugely convinces as it does so. However, as “Wannabees� - which is an ode to those of us still following those bands destined to be superb… and remain largely ignored (count me in!) - kicks up its own mini storm I can’t help but get the feeling that these songs would be a hundred times better being belted out on a stage to a sweaty mass of bodies all lost in the moment. Without that spark I personally find Tear Down Your Idols to be grin inducing while it spins, but all too quickly forgotten. But if Dirtbag Republic ever manage to play a show near me, I’ll be down the front lapping up every attitude soaked second and worshipping my idols.

Track Listing
1. Main Objective
2. Skinny
3. Wannabees
4. Days Are Gone
5. Don’t Answer To No One
6. Tear Down Your Idols
7. Sorry
8. Did All I Could
9. Superficial
10. When I was Young
Bonus Track
11. Turn Back Fast

Added: July 30th 2022
Reviewer: Steven Reid
Score:
Related Link: Dirtbag Republic @ facebook
Hits: 558
Language: english

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