Michigan’s Awesome Color have a swagger about them that is immediately engaging. It just sounds like they’re playing with big, knowing grins on their faces. They mine a rich seem of retro-rock and play it like they mean it.
‘Electric Aborigines’ sees the band start move away from the out and out Stoogesisms of their first record and move across the classic rock spectrum taking in Love, Skynyrd, The Stones and Creedence along the way, all the while retaining the warm fuzz of their original sound.
The album clatters in with ‘Eyes Of Light’, a 6 minute space rock whig out that grabs the listeners attention from the get go and very much sets the scene for what to follow. That being a whistle stop tour through the ‘how to’ of 70’s rock. ‘Already Down’ references Sabbath, ‘Step Up’ gives it some serious shuffle boogie a la early ZZ Top and ‘Outside Tonight’ is the Stones all the way.
Obviously all of this lays them open to charges of being rather derivative, and in places this is hard to refute, but they play it with such conviction, as on the stand out ‘Burning’, that they mostly get away with it.
All in all, an exciting and very listenable record, one suspects however this band’s real forte is in their live shows so I’ll be looking out for them when they hit our shores next month.
Top Tracks: 'Eyes Of Light', 'Burning', 'The Moon'.
Released 28/04/08 on Ecstatic Peace Records