Brijitte West & The Desperate Hopefuls “From NY With Love”

Whilst the name Brijitte West may not exactly be a household name in the UK, it is one that is well known amongst glam, punk, sleaze rock fans here in the UK. This is not only for the great previous work under Brijitte West & The Desperate Hopefuls but also from her days in NY loose. They were one of those hugely under rated bands who you thought were poised to be huge but somehow it tragically never happened. However, there’s no keeping a rock n roller down, so Brijitte and her Desperate Hopefuls are now back.

Opening number, “Typical Drunken Loser” is, perhaps, a surprisingly ‘pop’ flavoured number. This is especially true given the somewhat acidic lyrics about a tragic rock n roller (we’d love to know who it’s actually about!!). “Permanent Ink” continues to confirm that this isn’t just a one dimensional, trashy rock n roll album. That song is slower and moodier than you might expect, although still very much a dirty rock song. Again, on “Lie To Me’, the focus is more on the great melody than just big guitar riffs.

Don’t get us wrong, this is still the kind of street level, trashy rock n roll that we love. “Close To Defeat” and the brilliantly catchy “Done It Proud” are the type of songs that will get all us gutter rockers shaking our heads and raising a glass or two!

There are also tracks such as “We Didn’t Make It” that really deserve to be heard on a bigger stage and by a wider audience. It’s just a damn pity that there aren’t more commercial radio or TV outlets for quality glam punk songs like “Lock & Chain”.

For now, we will just have to be content that we’re part of an exclusive club that will get the chance to appreciate the punk pop perfection of “Don’t Wait For Tomorrow” and the catchy refrain of “Hot Child”. We’ll just have to make sure we play it loud enough for others to hear it as well!!

Although, to be fair, Brigitte West and The Desperate Hopefuls already have a good band of fans eagerly awaiting this release, as demonstrated by the fact that it is being released via a Pledge music campaign. The album also features contributions from the deadly duo of Rich Ragnay (Role Models) and Rich Jones (Michael Monroe band). Those two guys know a thing or two about brilliant sleazy pop/rock records, so that should also help to spread the word about this release to people with a taste for proper rock n roll. However, what we also really need, is for this album to create enough of a buzz to encourage them to do some gigs around the country and not just in London, which would be a real treat!