The return of Sarpsborg, Östfold, Norway's Wig Wam with their fourth album is welcomed. The band of glam inspired hard rockers 2012 release is a high energy affair with some of their best material since the grand Wig Wamania which still today is a genre favorite of mine. The album opens with the title track and first single "Wall Street" that is a slick and gritty mid-tempo rocker which has all those excellent Wig Wam harmonies in the chorus. I like the darkness of the melody in this song and how it just has such a sleazy groove.
The album has very good production values with bright punchy guitars that are never too loud or overbearing. The vocals are exactly what you'd expect from the band with no expense spared for their massive harmonies. They always produce nice clear vocals that are easy to hear and understand. The homeland styled "Victory Is Sweet" is very Nordic and sounds like it could be the score for a national hockey or soccer video.
Sometimes the band lack in their songwriting as with the previously mentioned song but they get it right most of the time. As with the excellent pomp rock masterpiece "The Bigger, The Better" which is exactly the type of song I love to hear when I put on a Wig Wam record. It's happy with a giant punch and begs to be cranked up and sung a long to and I'm sure I'll be doing just that a lot.
A really excellent power ballad called "Tides Will Turn" slows things down a little but the song has all the trappings needed to make a quality power ballad. Glam (Åge Sten Nilsen) is in fine vocal form as he sings and the spectacular guitar solo by Teeny (Trond Holter) is astounding in its perfection for the song. Bands like Europe try to write great power ballads like this but never quite get to this class.
A very classic rock sounding "Wrong Can Feel So Right" follows nicely with a great melody and another excellent and tasteful solo by Teeny. I love the acoustic guitars dancing around on this song along with the female backing vocals. It all comes together perfectly and maybe this will be the next single from Wall Street. The album fails to disappoint as well has the band showing growth in all aspects of their sound. Wig Wam's instrumental track "Things Money Can't Buy" really shows how excellent Teeny's guitar playing is and his pitch perfect and very tasty soloing is given its own spotlight.
The album laid down great chorus's and melodies from the beginning to its end and speaking of its end they do a cover of "Schools Out". The Alice Cooper masterpiece which has been covered before and done well by Krokus but usually pails by all the others. Here is a different story Wig Wam take the song and although it sounds like the original for the most part they put their own Wig Wam sound and arrangement into it. The band does a great cover and they did it with all the love and attention to detail that it takes to make a great cover song.
Overall Wall Street ties what I believe is their best album Wig Wamania even if they didn't match my favorite song of theirs called "Chasing Rainbows" which came from their last record Non Stop Rock & Roll. This band has never disappointed and I can only look forward to many more great albums from the mighty fantastic Wig Wam.
Rock & Roll greatness I say! Rock & Roll greatness!
Monday 21 May 2012
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
0 comments:
Post a Comment