Review: The Cold Stares – The Southern
Mascot Records (September 6th, 2024)
Reviewer: Chris O’Connor
Now seven albums into their career, and at last (for me anyway), the band has come of age. What’s so different? Easy, at last their sound has a bottom end, something it has sorely lacked until now. As much as I had liked their previous outings, now the band sounds fully rounded, and as a result now kick harder than a Mississippi mule!
Guitarist/vocalist Chris Tapp, (new) bass guitarist Bryce Klueh, and drummer Brian Mullins have now become everything they had previously wanted to be, but were unable to reach. Think classic etc … vintage Blues Rock with a Southern Rock twist, and you will be right on the money.
What’s the big difference? Bryce’s meaty bottom end allows Chris to be less ‘busy/frenetic’ in his playing, and with Brian laying down a thick beat, the band simply sounds inspired anew. There is a vigour and glorious roove that is simply undeniable, the band somehow sounds ‘finished’/’completed’ – everything now makes sense.
Funnily enough the more I listen to this, the more I am reminded of Govt Mule (which is intended as a colossal compliment), somehow this comparatively young band has discovered the magical ‘groove’ that Warren Haynes and co had pretty much made their own – and the more I listen the more obvious it becomes.
Chris’s voice just gets better and better with age, he now sounds fully assured, like he’s ‘found himself’, in time to come, I think we could be talking about his as one of THE great vocalists, he has the power, the grit, the soul … he has it all going on. The more I listen to ‘The Southern’, the more impressed I become at the maturity and passion displayed by the trio.
Picking out individual songs for praise feels genuinely churlish, as all the songs stand proud either on their own or as past of ‘the whole’, even the way they are placed on the album makes perfect sense – and there are few albums you can truly say that about. The music is totally organic, moving and breathing with sinuous muscularity – it’s honestly glorious stuff, it’s intoxicating!
Whether you love deep ‘n’ dusky Blues, or red earth baked Southern Rock, ‘The Southern’ has it all in spades. The Cold Stares has come of age in the hugest of ways. So, just do yourselves a favour and buy the damned thing, or live with the regret forever. Totally brilliant!
Tracklist:
- Horse To Water
- Coming Home
- Looking For A Fight
- Blow Wind Blow
- Confession
- Level Floor Blues
- Seven Ways To Sundown
- No Love In The City Anymore
- Giving It Up
- Woman
- Mortality Blues
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