The Beat Surrender

I’m not a big fan of the colour orange, so the ‘The Needles’ album cover, I have to say, does not immediately fill me with delight. I feel I want to rip the cover off and get to the CD, but more through hatred of orange than the excitement of what I might find inside, but enough about their bad taste in colour. The Needles originate from Aberdeen and the band is made up of Dave Dixon (guitar/vocals), Paul Curtiss (bass) Richey Wolf (Keyboard/vocals) and Johnny Wolfe (drums/vocal).

They first got together at the end of the 90’s but the music of that time does not really feature highly in their music. Dave Dixon say’s about his influences “britpop meant nothing to us…it seemed like a London thing so we turned to the simplicity of the earliest rock ‘n’ roll for inspiration.” They are best known for their single ‘Dianne’ which gathered critical acclaim last year. The music is gritty and rugged rock and roll/ punk combined with that oh-so predictable pop element.

The album begins with the song Let You Down which rockets into life (literally) but I can’t work out whether I like their sound. I feel as though I’m not completely comfortable with the chords used. It’s definitely a good start to the album but there’s a lack of anything very melodic to grab hold of. The next song under the city immediately serves to change this view. The album suddenly becomes rowdy, chaotic and brilliant. Girl I Used To Know then hits with some deep guitar chords. It’s like the summery rock n roll of four decades ago but with a menacing edge. I could have done with a tempo knob on my ipod though, to speed it up a few notches.

Devil At Your Door is catchy and is up there with under the city. It features some shadowesque guitar playing and has a retro 60’s vibe about it. The next song Dianne doesn’t leave much to write home about even though it was released, and Summer Girls is ok, but doesn’t strike me as anything I’ve not heard before. Posion Ivy marks a bit of a change in tone. Without the heavy guitars and drums their singing talent shines through, however the next song Up Against The Wall is again drowned by heavy drums and guitar. My concentration wanes after this and Out Of My System, Delivery Day and Dead Or Alive don’t interest me much. In The Morning catches my attention once again but I still get slightly bored towards the end.

Continue