CD Reviews

Starting off with the very 60's influenced 'Burn the House Down', it's surf style guitars calling to mind a mixture of the Kinks, the Beach Boys and Australian proto-punks Radio Birdman.

However as rooted in the past as the sound is Thee Jenerators trick of making these retro-stylings sound like something new continued here, largely I would put this down to great energy that is transmitted by the band even through the recording.

This energy continues on the disc's second track 'French Disco'. Telling the tale of a somewhat shambolic trip to the French town of St Malo and more specifically a disagreement with a local bouncer, this lo-fi burst of sound clocks in at well under two minutes but is clearly designed to get a room moving and fill the dance floor.

This is the point on the record that Thee Jenerators take a break from the norm with the folksy inspired American Civil War song 'The Day I Let The Union Fall'. Unlike all their other guitar based rock and roll style, here Mark Le Gallez's band branch out into upbeat folk.

What really makes this track work is two things: the first is that it retains the energy of their other work while coming in a slightly different form, and the other is the way that band seem to really come together as one here with the vocal harmonies in the songs chorus.

This single really shows Thee Jenerators at their best combining the energy of their live performance with a clear example of their fantastic songwriting and it shows that Mark Le Gallez can also act as a musical story teller of the highest order while accompanied by a band of top level musicians.