The Buzz Above - Hey Negrita Album Review

Hey Negrita

Album Review

Think Mark Knopfler's voice. Add bucket loads of Americana. Result? Hey Negrita. It astounds me how we (Brits) can sometimes outdo the Yanks at their own game. That's what going on here. This brilliant nuevo-country band certainly knows how to throw it back in their faces, and with style. They got it together after frontman Felix Bachtolsheimer's five year drug addiction. This London based quartet (sometimes quintet) has delivered a polished second album in every way possible. They're pretty hot over the pond too, where they had a sell-out tour and mighty impressive SXSW appearance in Austin Texas. The music ranges from Pogues like romps such as Nine To Five (featuring some nifty harmonica work) to a spellbinding waltzy-tradfolk Lust And Bones a la Fairport Convention, even. Each song has melody at its heart.

First single, Can't Walk Away, a highly hummable country ditty (with subtle pedal steel hanging in the background) is a perfect opening track that sets the tone for the rest of this very impressive album. Twanging guitar and deep voiced singing by Felix on All About Me send you up-country before the Penny Drops, a shimmying dusty acoustic ballad. Abandon Ship, next single out July 3, has a rousing trad feel, almost in the Levellers mode, as is an equally impressive The Message.

Foot-tapping Coming Down (shades of The Mavericks?) is sure to be a party favourite, if it's ever released as a single. Good Times is text-book Dire Straits meets The Mavericks, though more countrified. The stunning Charlene chronicles a lost friend, as it builds and builds to a magnificent heart-wrenching chorus, supplemented by delicate pedal steel again.

Not to be missed at any cost!

Elly Roberts