The Answer - Revival

Cormac Neeson - Vocals
Paul Mahon - Guitar
Micky Waters - Bass Guitar
James Heatley - Drums

Irish rockers, The Answer, are back with their third album, Revival. Some clever music journo types have made remarks along the lines of, "trying a new genre" that isn't perhaps so old, but the truth is, good music is just that, good music (which for me is preferable to cashing in on modern trends and going for the pocket money demographic). The members of The Answer are all superb musicians, and as a band work well together, so the end result is absolutely solid. I say solid, and that might actually be my only complaint, read on.

Listening to the album, every track is what you'd come to expect from a good band, but as I said above this leads to my only complaint, in that there aren't any stand out tracks. Every song will have you tapping your foot, every song, the vocals are great, every song the drum beat timed to perfection. In a blinding statement of the obvious, if you like this genre of music you'll love this album, but if you're not, then well, you're not.

"Waste Your Tears" has got a lovely bottle neck type slide guitar piece introduction before launching into a main hooky riff that reminded me a bit of 80's funk rock band Extreme. "Use Me", the vocals hit a point where I thought of 80's band "Cinderella" (and I do mean that in a good way!), maybe even Little Angels. In fact I may even be as so bold to say that Cormac Neeson's vocal stylings have me reaching out for albums that feature the likes of Plant and Rogers, which is a pretty impressive set of peers to be amongst. You'd think with such comparisons that it would be nigh on impossible to find a suitable duet partner, but on "Nowhere Freeway", Neeson is joined by St Jude frontwoman, Lynne Jackaman who has a wonderful range to match. In short, it's a fantastic duet.

And the whole album is like this, "Vida (I Want You)" has a lovely guitar harmony line during the solo, "Caught On The Riverbed" starting off with a bright into that I thought for a second it was The Who, "Destroy Me" featuring a Spanish feel to some of the guitar work, it all comes together brilliantly. Oh, and "New Day Rising", reminds me of AC/DC's Thunderstruck. That may be the point that some people are making about it being an old genre, but the reality is, Brian Johnson, Robert Plant, Paul Rogers et al aren't going to be round forever, as much as we'd like them to be, and there's a generation around now who haven't listened to "Thunderstruck", or "All Right Now" etc. Quite possibly because those songs aren't getting airplay on Radio One. "The Answer" might actually be just that, an answer for bringing that style of music to a new audience, an audience who bemoan the fact that there's no decent music around at the moment. Well there is, and "The Answer" is right here: http://www.theanswer.ie/

The Answer are coming to Leicester's o2 Academy on 10th October