Kurt Baker “Rock N Roll Club”

Kurt Baker is a bit of a workhorse in the power pop world and is constantly putting out material either as a solo artist or as a member of bands. We’ve covered a couple of his albums before, but had lost touch for a while. But with an album entitled “Rock N Roll Club” we knew we had to give it a listen.

The album sure opens up in fine form with “Hittin Rock Bottom”. It starts with a great rock n roll riff and an opening line where the vocals weirdly remind us of Liam Gallagher. It’s pretty clear from that song and others like “Rock n Roll Club” and “Missed Connection” that Kurt is definitely looking to put the power into his power pop sound.

The album acts like a tour around what makes a great album. “She Don’t Wanna Be Alone” is just a dreamy song and “Anchors Up” is a great slice of Costello/Joe Jackson flavoured pop. But our favourite track on the album is the brilliant “Love Express”. We’re not sure if the disco sound is meant to be tongue in cheek, but it makes for an absolutely corker of a song. That fun element is kept going by the awesome “Bright Blue Sky” and “Not Right” where a shiny glam rock flavour is added to the sound.

We then slip decades where “Good Feeling” feels like a missing song from an 80’s film soundtrack. But we’re soon back to that classic pop sound with “Go Better” which is like Cheap Trick at their absolute peak (which is some feat).The album then switches tone once again to the sunshine pure pop of “In Love Again”. We somehow come full circle on the album where final track has the kind of easy going strumming melody that we associate with Noel, the other Gallagher brother.

This is an absolute top notch album. It is chock full of great tunes and most importantly is brilliant fun to listen to. It’s hard to see how anyone could listen to this album and not feel a lot happier by the end. We can’t give this album any bigger compliment then saying even before writing this review we have preordered it on vinyl. We recommend you do the same!