LICK AND A PROMISE: "Come Together In The Morning"

Rating: 6/10

Label: TSM/SLW Promotions 2011

Review by: Urban "Wally" Wallstrom

Lick And A Promise? Hey, whatever floats your boat. This particular back-to-basics rock band from Germany began their struggle in the summer of 2005 in the vicinity of Frankfurt. "Come Together In The Morning" is their sophomore release and it simply oozes of laidback seventies rock. I spoke earlier with their vocalist Jochen W Thoma and he told me the following and I quote: "We wanted to sound like a classic 70's rock record. Like the Stones' "Exile" e.g. nothing fancy, just an authentic timeless record without any gimmicks or shitty effects on it. Like the real deal, you know", end quote. Yep, we do know and it's a quite nice little album with plenty of nods and winky-winks to the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin as well as newer bands such as Black Crowes or the Derek Trucks Band.

They've already been on their first US Of A tour (West Coast), taking them to legendary venues such as the 'House Of Blues' and 'The Viper Room' on the world-famous Sunset Strip in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. Sadly you won't find any real uptempo track here, the melodies has been stripped down to the bone and thus why it's a 'basic' and laidback platter 'ala the late sixties/early seventies. "The Highway" sound a lot like if Black Crowes and Led Zeppelin decided to have a German love child. It's bits and pieces of this and that, and there's even a horn section in the background. The rest of the tracks are more or less Stones-ish and the band conjure up images of warm sunny afternoons and long gone days/daze. Nice arrangements, good, strong vocals, but it's just too samey and laidback in the long run. Nice but no cigar.

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