Label: Frontiers 2013
Review by: Urban "Wally" Wallstrom
There's quite the amazing story behind the Coney Hatch reunion. Carl Dixon (vocals/guitar) had a near fatal car carsh that left him in an induced coma, wifey reached out to the old members of the band and asked them to offer words of encouragement over to the phone. Lo and behold, many operations, doctors, naughty nurses, medicine and determination, Dixon returned to the stage with his three original band mates (Andy Curran -vocals, bass. Steve Shelski -lead guitar. Dave Ketchum -drums) in August of 2010 at their home turf of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, and after the Firefest performance in '11 - Frontiers decided to step in and offer dosh for posh new album.
It's their first album since Friction in 1985 and after recording a total of three albums between the years of 1982 to the mentioned mid-eighties, the lads simply decided to call it quits. Reunited they are more than just guitar rock in the vein of Cheap Trick, Starz, The Who (what?) with an healthy dose of very early Headpins. Nevertheless, it's clearly not as much AOR as expected and guitarist Shelski - at times the proper deadringer for Rick 'Bozo' Neilsen. Noisy, ugly, and very loud (sound-wise).
People (read every other daft reviewer) are saying it's AC/DC rock, but that's keeping things a bit too simple. The Aussies were hardly alone with their "magical formula" of three, never more than four, chords to keep the beat going thoughout their career. Simply ask The Who (what?). The riffs are plenty and the songs are literally boosting of power rock. However, the hooks are not always there to accomplish the mission so to speak. You simply can't ignore the fun guitar rock featured in tracks such as 'Blown Away', 'Boys Club' or 'Down & Dirty' though. Nice but no cigar.
www.coneyhatch.com
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