Black Paisley – Rambler
Release Date: 11th December 2020
Bandcamp
Genre: Classic Rock, Hard Rock, Melodic Rock.
FFO: Thunder, Magnum, Whitesnake.
Review By: Paul Franklin
In the increasingly exotic and diverse selection on offer in the rock music delicatessen, Black Paisley would be a cheese sandwich. Now I know that sounds like an insult, but it’s not. When you tire of all the latest short-lived trends and fads, a cheese sandwich can be a thing of simple pleasure and enormous satisfaction. Not a limp, sweaty, processed cheese sandwich you’d find in a garage forecourt, no, one made with passion and attention to detail using only the finest quality ingredients (thick, crusty bread, lashings of creamy butter and layers of strong, tangy cheese). Black Paisley take the quality ingredients of classic, melodic hard rock (thick hooks, lashings of delicious solos and layers of vocal harmonies) and use their passion and attention to detail to produce the eight tracks that make up Rambler.
This is the third album from this Swedish band and their first with a new line-up, which now includes ex-Electric Boys Franco Santunione on guitar and backing vocals. It’s also the first to feature their new sound, which sees them ditching the keyboards that were a feature of their previous releases and ‘introducing a riffier sound and more up-tempo songs, without abandoning the catchy melodies’. Living up to this promise, Rambler is bookended by Damned and Give It Up, both tracks catchier than an angling association accidently double booking their annual exhibition into the same venue as a body piercing appreciation society.
The Thunder-esque single Without You is followed by the slick melodies and harmonies of Higher Love. Either side of the halfway point in the album Save The Best sounds like Cheap Trick reworking Dancing In The Dark, whilst Timeless Child showcases that Franco still knows how to wring out a killer solo.
A more mid-tempo, and redemption seeking Take Me To The River leads to the bluesy ballad Falling, which, rather brilliantly, mashes together Gary Moore and one of those (numerous!) Aerosmith ballads from the 90’s. Then the afore mentioned hook laden Give It Up, guarantees that you go away with at least one earworm claiming squatters’ rights in the deepest part of your subconscious.
In conclusion, they may not have reinvented the wheel, but Black Paisley show that whilst trends come and go and the novelty of the new can quickly fade into indifference, quality will always be cherished.
(4 / 5)
