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Album Review
by SaschaS
24-9-2004
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| 22-20's: the goodness of rock-blues... |
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22-20's: '22-20's'
(Heavenly)
22-20’s - an update worth mass attention
As the planet completes another turn, a new hope emerges like the fiery ball over the autumnal East. Not that long ago, there was a huge bidding war - after one single and a handful of dates - amidst the labels but EMI managed to secure the signing of the 22-20's. The Leicester band appears to be a British response to The White Stripes-kinda expression, the co’s PR and media would like us to think.
But, that’s not even the beginning of telling their sonic story. Although 22-20’s hit the same starting blocks, that of blues, this is more of the UK version as the rockers saw it back in the 1960s that scorches on all the cylinders from the opening ‘Devil In Me’. The approach is as different as a ‘muscle-car’ versus a Morris Minor…
Still, rudimentary, primal, beat-driven, it is a sonic platform for singer [and main songwriter] Martin Trimble to dominate in a tradition-honouring style without aping anyone in particular. Named after a Skip James’s track, the main reference points are more like The Yardbirds, John Mayall and, it could well be, the early Stones, with equal awareness of contemporary sounds - the best example being ‘22 Days’.
‘Such a Fool’ gets even rockier in its blues application with instruments sounding as punky as you can imagine, until a guitar soars into a solo that is spirit captivating. Slowing pace slightly on ‘Baby Brings Bad News’, it will take ‘Friends’ to show their truly acoustic-cum-ballady side and it is in the best tradition of vintage Woody Guthrie-cum-Neil Young, if we may. The current single ’Shoot Your Gun’ thundered to a Top 30 place [shame on you, ‘music lovers’!] although its quality should have carried it nearer the summit…
‘Why Don't You Do It For Me?’ shakes with an infectious hook and build-up, one gets exhausted by the end of its succinct 3:36 minutes! ‘I’m The One’ raises the stakes higher and it hits you as the charts should [but hardly ever do anymore]! At times as boisterous as Blues Explosion [formerly The Jon Spencer’s], at other moments as expanding as U2 and Muse can be at their best instances, in particular on the concluding ‘Hold On’...
The 22-20's live performances won crowds at the Leeds Festival, Leicester Charlotte and Reading and with their own headlining tour throughout the UK and Ireland, followed by European dates, and a return to Japan - no one will be able to stop their global infestation.
At once it feels like there could be a Brit-blues revival and all the better for it! Gotta re-listens me old vinyls by Steampacket, John Baldry and Julie Driscoll & the Brian Auger Trinity…
8/10
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Tour dates:
22 September - Death Disco, Notting Hill Arts Club, London
23 September - Buffalo Bar, Islington, London
24 September - The Leopard, Doncaster (free promo gig)
05 October - Fleece, Bristol
06 October - Met Lounge, Peterborough
07 October - Ifor Bach, Cardiff
08 October - Zodiac, Oxford
09 October - Leadmill, Sheffield
11 October - King Tuts, Glasgow
12 October - Venue, Edinburgh
13 October - University 1+2, Newcastle
14 October - Welly Club, Hull
16 October - Empire, Middlesbrough
17 October - Academy, Liverpool
18 October - University, Leeds
20 October - Hop and Grape, Manchester
21 October - Rescue Rooms, Nottingham
23 October - Concorde 2, Brighton
24 October - Wedgewood, Portsmouth
25 October - Waterfront, Norwich
26 October - Academy 2, Birmingham
27 October - Scala, London
29 October - Whelans, Dublin
30 October - Limelight, Belfast
SaschaS
24-9-2004
22-20's album ‘22-20’s’ is released 20 September 2004 by Heavenly
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