ARTIST: Weapons
TITLE: Weapons
LABEL: Wicked Old Lady Records
GENRE: Alternative
SOURCE: CD
BITRATE: 237 kbps avg
PLAYTIME: 33:44
RELEASE DATE: 2006-00-00
RIP DATE: 2006-09-28
Track List
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1. Love Is Thunder 3:37
2. The Last Place She Went To Was 2:51
The Ocean
3. Terrorist Youth 3:05
4. Each Man Kills What He Loves 3:16
The Most
5. Special Relativity 3:54
6. Black Line Ninja 3:06
7. The Thieves (Feat. Jem) 4:03
8. I Want To Save The World 2:35
9. Panic 3:37
10. Out Of Time 3:40
Release Notes:
Apparently Weapons have been asked by music execs, in all seriousness, whether
they were put together by some Simon Cowell-like mogul. This sixpiece, whose
central players JG and Georgia (like their sister Jem) come from Penarth, might
look like a style mag's wet dream, but thankfully it's not artifice.
This self-released debut album is an incredibly solid piece of work, recalling a
range of unfeasible elements. Weapons are glam-rock-rap-metal-punk-riff
merchants melding musical styles into a molten whole.
A lot of Weapons' schtick is an overt sleaziness and lead track Love Is Thunder
has Georgia singing about self-love, as backing vocals groan in the background.
A big chorus hook it has, though miniscule compared to the gargantuan tune of
The Last Place She Went To Was The Ocean. A potential single, it piledrives its
sing-along chorus, oozing confidence and swagger.
Terrorist Youth, a previous single, is the first track on the LP with their
signature frenetic vocal stylings. There's something of American punk oiks about
this song, with the slightly clumsy political lyrics redeemed by a hyperspeed
blowout at the end.
Rapper Mau-Laudi gets his first run out on the loping verse of Each Man Kills
What He Loves The Most. But stabbing shards of strings and high-pitched vocals
soon rip it apart for a passage which recalls Muse's grandiose rock.
Another previous single, Black Line Ninja, is redolent of the rock-rap of
Senser's Age Of Panic, all pogo-friendly riffing and fast larynx work, then Jem
joins them for the delicious The Thieves. More menacing and powerful than her
own work, her soft-edged vocals provide the perfect complement to Mau-Laudi's
dark vocals and the crypt-friendly melody.
More social-political commentary comes in the double-barrelled shotgun vocals of
Panic as JG and Georgia once more recall some of the early-90s UK rap-rock-indie
cabal. Fifteen years down the line, though, it sounds less a rehash and more a
re-evaluation.
What goes around comes around in music, and it was about time rap-rock emerged
from nu-metal's ghastly shadow once more. Weapons have managed to make appealing
a forgotten musical form, uniting it with their everything-but-the-kitchen-sink
songwriting and huge choruses.
http://www.weaponsmusic.net/
http://www.myspace.com/weaponsmusic