Gospel Bombs - Vincent Vincent & The Villains Album Review

Photo By:Mattia Zoppellaro

Album Review

Vincent Vincent and the Villains. The rock and roll images conjured up by the name aren't far from the truth - but this album is a more complex mash-up of musical ingredients than the 50's revival tribute I was expecting.

First out of the speakers is 'Beast', a Coral-esque, mariachi tinged stomp that sets the overwrought lyrical tone for the rest of the album. Vincent sings with a sense of theatre and melodrama that matches the music's quirky style. The spaghetti-western stylings are dropped for more classic rock 'n' roll on the next track as the band cheerfully sing "Oh Blue Boy, I was once like you..." before plunging back into the fraught tension of Sins of Love (Wah Do).

'On my own' may have caught your attention with its video of a hula-hooping showgirl, released last November, and in the context of the album it's still grabs attention with its danceable cheerfulness. Expect it to re-appear on hi-fi systems in parks throughout the summer - along with 'Pretty Girl', 'Killing Time' and 'I'm Alive', an upbeat rock 'n' rollers that evokes memories of The Strokes' 'Last Night'.

'Cinema' is an impressive oddity as Vincent is inhabited by the spirit of an underpaid cinema attendant to recount the disillusionment that comes with dead-end work. It rattles towards the fitting lyrical conclusion, "The End". The album continues makes its mark with the frenetic alternation between cheerful dance numbers and stomping minor-key melancholy. The only miss-fire comes in 'Sweet Girlfriend' when the band take their cues from barber-shop quartets. The backing vocals clash with the lead as Vincent ploughs his own furrow through the otherwise tight harmonies.

Past the rhythmic, rolling anger of 'Telephone' is the band's curtain call, the beguiling 'End of the Night'. The song coasts through a landscape of reverb-clad guitars hitting every off-beat on the way. Vincent Vincent and the Villains impress with the delight and enthusiasm they impart to this twist on a classic era.

James Thomson