For an average listener, The Remains are just one of the bands that accompanied The Beatles on their last US tour in 1966, but for those “in the know”… they’re sooooo much more, one of the ultimate, all time favourite sixteez garage/beat bands.
Their style combined the Zombie-like melodies with the raw, garage punk power, making an ideal cross between the British invasion and the American answer to it.
What we have here is their come back album, that had to be waited for 36 years, and it was worth the wait, cuz Barry and co. still have it! What’s most important is that they stay in the good ol’ 3-minute song form, expressing more than most of the youngsters do in a much longer space of time.
Don’t Tell Me The Truth is just the perfect opener, starting with the kinda sophisticated garage punk riff, leading into one of those characteristic minor-chord verses, with the great stop’n’start arrangement, and therefore capturing the best parts of the early classics like Why Do I Cry, Once Before or Me Right Now.
It’s followed with the r’n’beat of The Power Of Love, that also wouldn’t sound out of place if thrown among the band’s mid ’60s efforts, and then goes the Bo Diddley-beat of A Man’s Best Friend Is His Automobile, with the shakers shakin’ like if they were in the hands of none other than Phil May.
After a coupla tracks coming from the same “country” side where Barry had found himself in his post Remains days, they get back to what they do the best, with the Mersey flavoured 12-string heaven of Listen To Me, Bill Brigg’s Wurlitzerized ballad You and the closing dose of beatifix Time Keeps Movin’ On.
Some of the lucky attendants say that there were cases when The Remains used to stole the show from the fab four back in 1966 … they can still prove it!
[Released by Rock-A-Lot 2002]
Be the first to comment