Any great album needs to open with a track that grabs the listener and draws them in, and the choice to have “Be Somebody” as song number one is pure genius. A jangly Mike Oldfield-like guitar, a driving beat and Lee-la Baum’s honeyed tones and we’re off to the races and don’t look back until the final notes of “The Dying Dove”. This album not only grabs you, but hits like a sledgehammer, gripping your mind, heart and soul for almost forty-five minutes of incendiary sonic euphoria. The band have managed to ensure that The Damn Truth’s DNA and blueprint is embedded into each and every song, yet somehow on this release it feels new, fresh and different. There is a real depth to the soundscape, the more you listen to it the more you pick out across the bandwidth, your ears caressed from all angles. Whether it’s Dave Traina’s pounding drums, driving beats and delicate fills, PY LeTellier’s sinuously cool bass runs or Tom Shemer’s impeccable guitar sound with just right amount of fuzz in the body of the song and sensationally searing solos, there’s always something new to delight and entrance the listener.
And then there’s Lee La’s exquisite vocal performance, one that contains so much emotion, colour and soul that you cannot do anything but believe every word, every note that she sings. She takes the listener by the hand, the perfect guide, storyteller and confidante, her honesty and sheer passion for her craft shining through.
It’s only February but this is already a contender for the album of the year and it’s hard to see who or what could surpass this release; the term all killer and no filler could be have been coined just for this album. The Damn Truth have really pulled off a masterstroke, their collaboration with Bob Rock continuing to be a dream partnership, melding incredible songwriting and stellar production to deliver an album that is an absolute classic in the making. As you might expect, the production is uniformly superb; there are so many layers embedded in the tracks, that in the hands of a lesser producer could have muddied or overwhelmed the arrangements, however here it has been beautifully mixed, with each element coming though crystal clear.
For example, “If I Don’t Make It Home”, is a simply stunning, glittering, emotion drenched jewel of a song, with Lee-la’s voice never better, breathing life and colour into those heart-rending lyrics. It’s a song to drown in, vividly dramatic, epic in scope, rising to an almost delirious climax, Lee-la’s voice duelling with Tom’s guitar, his haunting solo elevating the song before letting fly with some fierce fretboard melting soloing behind the harmonies in the chorus, without ever being flash or pretentious. Gospel-esque backing vocals crank the feels higher and higher, and damn it, is that something in my eye….
