Mr. Riot
Same Old Town
Sleaszy Rider Records
2016
Mr. Riot is a young Italian quintet that came together after the demise of their former bands (quite a regular story of how bands come together) and in wanting to express their love for all things sunset strip they started playing together…
Apart from their ridiculous pseudonyms and the fact that the intro (“Wake Up!” some Italian, mother/gf/landlady, complaining about their lazy asses, being more Italian/accented than spaghetti), as soon as “Scream and Shout” rolls in, everything is excused and forgotten. A raucous anthemic opener that doesn’t let go.
“Rock N Roll” is even better! And the band just keeps hitting back with each and every song.
Their eponymous one, is also cool, while “Illusion” is a ballad that’s not affected by territorial accents etc.
“America” is so feel-good, I felt like I was listening to some lesser David Lee Roth sort of tune… same attitude, less chops.
“Sexy Photograph” could have been good, but it’s more fooling around and too little nitty gritty.
For some bizarre reason “Close Your Eyes” tries to differentiate itself, into a more free form rocker and even some accented moments (typically during extended vowels) creep in, thus making it a little lesser.
“Wild Raw” is raunchier and faster, but the steamroller seems to be running out of steam by this point, despite the band’s best efforts to sound like a Motley Crew (intended spelling).
“Spread Our Love” is an acoustic ballad that’s completely flaccid that might have worked as a closer, but it’s one song before the end… with the title track closing the album, not all “GUNZ” absolutely blazing, while funkily strutting it’s stuff, but ultimately hardly able to compete with the opening half of the album.
For some bizarre and inexplicable reason, probably wanting to release the album faster, the band seems to drop the ball with the latter part of the album, which is a shame, because they seem pretty capable of coming up with the goods. Should be interesting to see what they could come up with in the future.
Apart from their ridiculous pseudonyms and the fact that the intro (“Wake Up!” some Italian, mother/gf/landlady, complaining about their lazy asses, being more Italian/accented than spaghetti), as soon as “Scream and Shout” rolls in, everything is excused and forgotten. A raucous anthemic opener that doesn’t let go.
“Rock N Roll” is even better! And the band just keeps hitting back with each and every song.
Their eponymous one, is also cool, while “Illusion” is a ballad that’s not affected by territorial accents etc.
“America” is so feel-good, I felt like I was listening to some lesser David Lee Roth sort of tune… same attitude, less chops.
“Sexy Photograph” could have been good, but it’s more fooling around and too little nitty gritty.
For some bizarre reason “Close Your Eyes” tries to differentiate itself, into a more free form rocker and even some accented moments (typically during extended vowels) creep in, thus making it a little lesser.
“Wild Raw” is raunchier and faster, but the steamroller seems to be running out of steam by this point, despite the band’s best efforts to sound like a Motley Crew (intended spelling).
“Spread Our Love” is an acoustic ballad that’s completely flaccid that might have worked as a closer, but it’s one song before the end… with the title track closing the album, not all “GUNZ” absolutely blazing, while funkily strutting it’s stuff, but ultimately hardly able to compete with the opening half of the album.
For some bizarre and inexplicable reason, probably wanting to release the album faster, the band seems to drop the ball with the latter part of the album, which is a shame, because they seem pretty capable of coming up with the goods. Should be interesting to see what they could come up with in the future.