Artist: Danny And The Champions Of The World
Album: Hearts & Arrows
Bitrate: 258kbps avg
Quality: EAC Secure Mode / LAME 3.98.4 / -V0 / 44.100Khz
Label: Loose
Genre: Rock
Size: 92.20 megs
PlayTime: 0h 47min 30sec total
Rip Date: 2011-08-19
Store Date: 2011-07-18
Track List:
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01. Ghosts In The Wire 5:12
02. Heart & Arrow 3:31
03. Soul In The City 4:11
04. Colonel And The King 4:44
05. Brothers In The Night 4:56
06. Too Tough To Cry 4:29
07. Every Beat Of My Heart 5:07
08. Can't Hold Back 3:22
09. On The Street 3:25
10. You Don't Know (My Heart Is In 3:34
The Right Place)
11. Walk With Me 4:59
Release Notes:
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Fans of Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty and The Gaslight Anthem will lap up the
ersatz blue-collar Americana of Danny Wilson, a south Londoner who appears to
have been born to the sound of the screen door slamming and the sight of Mary's
dress waving. Wilson was already paying homage to The Boss when with previous
outfit Grand Drive. Three albums in with his Champions - now a different line-up
to that which recorded 2008's debut and 2010's Streets of Our Time - he's not
about to reveal a long-suppressed love of edgy electronica.
So it's all checked shirts and rolled-up sleeves as the band pump out the
predictable chord changes, anthemic choruses and messages of hope. If your dream
is to be transported to an Asbury Park bar circa 1975, this will prove catnip to
you. Of all his obvious heroes, Wilson's voice perhaps most closely resembles
Bruce-buddy Southside Johnny, and he sings with emotive conviction throughout,
trying his level best to breathe vigour into even his most clichΘd couplets.
He's "hiding in the alley just a-waiting for glory" while "Billy is a silhouette
and Jeannie is a shadow / Billy's got a magpie's eye, Jeannie's like a sparrow".
Sometimes it feels like Danny's swallowed the collected works of John Mellencamp
and sleeps under a Born in the USA duvet cover.
The opener Ghosts in the Wire uses a restrained, baited-breath rhythm to create
an attractive suspense, while the (almost) title-track adopts something of the
bouncy fervour of Eddie and the Hot Rods' Do Anything You Wanna Do. If the album
then settles into bog-standard bloke-orientated pub-rock, it's always true to
itself and its ideals. Like the back catalogues of Nick Lowe and Graham Parker,
it strives to make virtues of its second-hand charms. "Authenticity" is ensured
by the involvement of Tony Poole as producer (once guitarist with mid-70s band
Starry-Eyed and Laughing) and mixer Ted Hutt (who's worked with The Gaslight
Anthem). It's all, of course, unchallenging, with You Don't Know even echoing
Rick Springfield's Jessie's Girl. As its refrain chimes, its "heart is in the
right place", even if its calendar isn't.