Tom Baker “Dirty Snakes”

Tom Baker is obviously a man who likes to keep himself busy. The fact that he’s roped in the Dirty Truckers to help him on this album is probably enough to make you want it. That’s even before you know it’s released by Rumbar Records (a label with exceptional taste!).

If you need a quick blast of rock n roll to wake you up then opening number “Cancel It” will certainly do that! It’s a brilliant slice of rock n roll which will be stuck in your brain for weeks. Indeed that’s true of so many songs on this album.

If you find a lot of ‘Americana’ style music interesting but a tad dull, this will be the album to get you going. There’s definitely an Americana feel to tracks like “Out OF Focus”. But, rather than being delivered by a melancholy solo artist, these are given an almost power pop shine. It means tracks like “Pushin You Away” and “Turn Your Head Around” have an almost Lemonheads feel.

The songs are also delivered with a nice sense of humour as shown by the brilliant, and so apt, “On Your Device”. Together with “Weird Romance” there’s more of a pop element to these songs. They remind us of the purer pop sound that Paul Westerberg was going for in the last couple of Replacements albums..

Given Tom Baker’s previous records we knew this was going to be a great album but it has still taken us by surprise. The fact we have referenced The Lemonheads and The Replacements (two of our favourite bands) shows how great this is! It marks a slight shift in Tom Baker’s sound, but is a great record. Our only disappointment is that it’s just too damn short!