Vintage Trouble
Heavy Hymnal
(Cooking Vinyl)
4 out of 5 stars
Videos by American Songwriter
The promotional sheet for Vintage Trouble describes the act as blues/funk/rock. While that’s true, they left out some major ingredients to the Californian-based quartet’s sound: soul and gospel.
Those are particularly evident as you push play on this, the band’s third album. The disc explodes with a propulsive, tough, double-time sputter on “Who I Am” as lead singer, Ty Taylor, spits out lyrics with the intensity and speed of a machine gun. For the words that try to hurt I find a healing / Cause nothing’s gonna shackle my freewheeling he sings/shouts as the band rocks out. That combination of soul/gospel power has made them a worldwide phenomenon, especially in the UK.
It’s quite a lead-off salvo and introduction for a batch of ten keepers. They shift from that rugged, often frantic style to a softer but no less intense approach on the sweet, finger-snapping R&B of “Not the One,” which could be a cover of a lost Marvin Gaye gem. Taylor skitters over the lyrics about being in a dysfunctional relationship, floating into falsetto close enough to Prince to at least invite reasonable comparisons.
Co-producer Christopher Seefried, who also co-wrote a clutch of selections, keeps the sonics just raw enough. But he also invites backing singers and even strings, specifically on the grooving “Alright Alright,” to accentuate Vintage Trouble’s soulful leanings. Imagine Lenny Kravitz fronting the Rascals and you’re close to the taut yet tensile attack the quartet exudes. When Taylor takes to testifying like Otis Redding on the bluesy “The Love that Once Lingered,” which features a searing duet with singer Lady Blackbird doing her best Tina Turner, you’ll be transported back to R&B’s ’60s heyday.
There are serious socio-political themes in the lyrics too. On “Holla!” Taylor decries the loss of freedoms with How did we circle back to yesterday / The steps we took were taken back / What would those who came before us say / Of our return to the white and black. The music percolates behind him with a combination of the sinewy, melodic, and often sing-along rock/gospel/blues this band thrives on.
At just over five minutes, the closing “Repeating History” also reflects those sentiments with How many times we gonna go around / Before we stop repeating history as supporting vocals take us to church on a tune that seems plucked from the Curtis Mayfield songbook. A searing Hendrix-inflected guitar solo pounds home that message, leaving this album as classic Vintage Trouble and arguably their finest, and surely most politically potent, statement yet.
Photo courtesy Chartroom Media
Leave a Reply
Only members can comment. Become a member. Already a member? Log in.