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Sweet Apple came out of nowhere to deliver bluesy rock and roll.
I could start off this review by telling you the whole back story about how the band came together and how J Mascis (Dinosaur Jr.) became involved but hey that’s not an album review. Sweet Apple is essentially driven by a musician with decades of experience behind him – John Petkovic (Death of Samantha and Cobra Verde). The rest you can Google! Interestingly though the bassist is called Dave Sweetapple…
The sound here is big and seventies and the sort of rock that used to fill halls and arenas but there are several twists to that mix, and we are never looking at straight radio rock territory, just a bunch of tunes that sometimes work and sometimes don’t. Mainly though they do. You can feel trace elements of some of the great big 70’s rock Dinosaurs rumbling around, all tinged with a bluesy underground colouring.
At their best this is all gloriously epic and shambolic at the same time, at its worst (like the dreadfully dull ballad ‘Dead Moon’ or the workmanlike ‘Goodnight’ which is a disappointing song to be closing the album) it’s missing the mark. And that is about the worst you can say about this album that sometimes it doesn’t quite click. Something I’m sure any artist could live with as a peak criticism.
There are some killer lyrics and themes generally run around a sort of head down joyous hedonistic rampage through life to destruction. Its all very don’t give a shit attitude actually makes it a lot of fun.
Highlights for me are ‘Hold Me I’m Dying’ which is like looking through a dirty window at 70’s Glam. There’s also the pop-punk-grunge-rock of ‘Do you Remember’ that opens the album. ‘Blindfold’ works well as a new-age rock epic that starts to give off a Doors-like odour one minute, before turning all rocked out 70’s guitar explosion. I also really like the alt-rock driving riff of ‘Someone Else’s Problem’ for its simplicity.
To be honest I pretty much enjoyed everything else: ‘Flying Up a Mountain’ works and has some cool lyrics; ‘Never Came’ has a grungy flavour and the autobiographical ‘Can’t See You’ comes across a little Bowie meets Talking Heads, well maybe…
An Excellent listen if you like your apples sweet and like to experiment with things a little different. Like classic Rock played by kids who never saw those bands but loved the feel…
