Corin Ashley – Empathy Centre
It’s people with the right smile, the perfect haircut and dressed in trendy attire that can say whatever they want. They have the real power. As long as the smile keeps flashing, they’re able to utter the truth, or bold-faced lies, and the world will love them just the same.
Isn’t that the story of pop music, really? Even The Beatles, the Golden Standard of this art form, had to deliver their most beautiful songs before they were allowed to question their fame as compared to that of Messiah.
Corin Ashley sounds like someone who has studied pop history carefully, all the way down to the right guitars and hats that need to be used. He must also know that the equivalent of the perfect smile, as far as pop-rock is concerned, is beautiful melodies and faultless harmonies.
That’s why it should be easy to enjoy “Empathy Centre,” even if you’ve never heard English at any other point during your life. But search a little deeper and Ashley’s ambition and humour take centre stage.
His Sgt. Pepper-like group is helping spread a public service message about empathy and love. This message is, naturally, delivered from a not-too-distant future in which these resources have all but evaporated.
It’s a good Rickenbacker-drenched sound, a good concept, and a clever music video. It’s the kind of work Klaatu never put into their 60s-drenched sound. But the fantasy for far-away, peaceful places has only increased over time.
Bonnie And The Jets – Broke Blues
Yeah, the great rock n’ roll romantics may look like Luddites nowadays. They may be depicted in video and print as people who want nothing to do with modern technology. But, in reality, the sounds that they struggle to reconnect with are only a few decades old. Truthfully, not that much time has actually passed. It’s only that pop music’s evolved so quickly.
The majority of them, however, aren’t just placing their bodies in front of the bulldozers in order to make trouble. They’re not just screaming about rock n’ roll not being the same just to draw attention to themselves. They’re trying earnestly to save us. What they’ve heard is a warm, lively sound. That sound was laid down on old vinyl grooves, and its bands like Bonnie and The Jets who are trying to keep it alive.
The Norwegian group’s sound might be called “retro” by some, and “classic” by others. And the band’s members wouldn’t mind that classification. They’re really preachers of the qualities and the benefits of rock n’ roll done in the same way as the greats recorded their music back in the 1960s or 1970s. And, while “Broke Blues” is a song about the dissolution of a romantic relationship, you can hear traces of Pink Floyd in the instrumental parts and a great soulfulness to the vocals. It’s the kind of controlled chaos that only this kind of rock music can offer, and a reason to continue dreaming of the past.
