Alex Maiorano and The Black Tales “Everything Boom”

Sometimes, you just see a band name and an album cover and kind of know that they’re a group for you. Perhaps you shouldn’t judge a book by it’s cover, but when an album has a picture of a punk gypsy shaking his maracas and it’s called “Everything Boom” you know you’ve gotta buy it!

Of course, that leaves you with the worry that maybe the music won’t live up to your expectations. Any fears in that respect, are immediately put to bed with opening number “Black Snake”. A ramshackle rock n roll song supplemented with blasts of horn. Together with songs like “Green Sin Bags”, this is just pure, fun, rock n roll. Tracks like “Everybody Free” and “Desperado With the Ukulele Sound” (what a title!) take the shuffle of the Rolling Stones at their best and add the sleazy, gutter rock of Hanoi Rocks. All of which adds up to probably the perfect rock n roll sound.

There is certainly something special about this band and their songs. “Get, Get It” and “Man With Soul” add an almost Philly soul sound to the mix. The result is that they end up sounding like Motown rock n roll songs. The accompaniment of horns to the tracks really makes the album spring to life. All that is before you get to the Caribbean sound of “Three Boys In One Night”. Sadly, the party comes to an end too soon with “She wasn’t Around”, a number which keeps the reggae beat going but in more of a The Clash style. These last few songs have a variety and sense of showmanship that we saw on the last couple of Jesse Malin albums. Although the actual original sound, to us at least, seems to have come from the legendary Mink Deville.

There is no need for a long conclusion to this review. It may have actually been released in late 2015 but, despite fierce competition, this is probably our favourite album of 2016. We loved it so much that we now have it on vinyl and CD. You really need to go out and buy it now!