Hoodoo Gurus
Chariots of the Gods
(Big Time Record Co./EMI)
4 out of 5 stars
Videos by American Songwriter
Cheap Trick fans know the feeling. It’s that sugar-high adrenaline rush when power pop connects with the force of a musical earthquake. The drums pound, the guitars crunch, the melodies snap and crackle…it’s a full body and mind experience.
But while Trick has occasionally veered off course into what many consider slick, overproduced shadows of themselves throughout their career, Australia’s Hoodoo Gurus kept the fist-pumping faith. Frontman/singer/songwriter Dave Faulkner and shotgun riding guitarist Brad Shepherd have cranked out superb, tight, melodic, stomping rocking since Stoneage Romeos (1984), a revved-up debut that hasn’t lost an ounce of its intensity over the decades.
Calling this the 40th anniversary, as the promotional notes do, is a bit misleading though. While they may have formed in 1981, few outside of their home continent knew they existed before their first album. And then there was that eight-year gap after the Gurus disbanded in 1998 only to reconvene in full bluster for Mach Schau in 2004. Chariots of the Gods is the band’s first studio set since 2010, a decade-plus long absence which also doesn’t fit neatly into the 40th outline.
Nevertheless, the quartet remains steadfast to their power-pop principles of two guitars, bass and drums pummeling 13 (16 on the deluxe double vinyl) bangers that could have been recorded anytime during the past four decades. Faulkner’s voice remains sturdy and distinctive, the production is crisp and crunchy, and the songs are so durable you’ll be singing their choruses after a single spin. That’s the key to not just the Hoodoo Gurus’ musical aesthetic but to Faulkner’s unerring ability to find the sweet spot between rugged, raw, and catchy hooks.
You’ll hear occasional references to other acts; The Turtles with the baa-baa-baas sprinkled throughout “Equinox,” the old Who in the muscular chords of “Carry On” and even early Elvis Costello with driving “Pump It Up” percussion thudding under the pounding “World of Pain.” Look closely at the writing credits for “Got to Get You Out of My Life” (one of the extra tracks) to realize it’s not an obscure Lou Reed/Velvet Underground tune. Thumping drums bring a garage psychedelic edge to the title track, seemingly about an alien invasion from space.
Faulkner pens all but two tunes; the rollicking romp through The Beatles’ “I Wanna Be Your Man” and a driving swampy blues take on Dylan’s “Obviously Five Believers,” both turbocharged and sound like Gurus’ originals.
Those who may have missed the Hoodoo Gurus can catch up with this entry and work themselves back through a catalog that has no weak links. They’re still here and as they proclaim in “Carry On,” the disc’s initial single and most pop-worthy moment declaring We don’t shirk, we don’t shout, and we get the business done. If they don’t listen we will still carry on.
Spoken like the lifers they are.
