‘From behind this smile, I’m dying inside, I’m declining’.
Time, my friends, how it moves, how it glides, how it shifts, how it slides, creating distance and closeness, aggravating wounds, promoting healing.
After the monumental success of ‘These Days’ the anthem for lockdown, Scarlet Rebels return a-hollering and a-raging from the valleys to continue the onslaught, keeping a keen eye on the battles that have been fought and using the ongoing saga of inanity to rally the natives for a revolution. A band that are firm favourites on Great Music Stories, you can bet they will have sealed their place once more with ‘Where The Colours Meet’ their new album.
For the lesser benighted mammals like me, Scarlet Rebels lay it all out for you to see – ahem #matron- following on from ‘See Through Blue’ we get another dose of anti – establishment scathing and skewering, recording all the faults and well, gaping inadequacies so that we may see the bigger picture, instead of walking blindly into the sinkhole of society. Opening with ‘Secret Drug’ we get a little romantic, a little ditty for your beloved, before developing an acid tongue to deal with the utter stupidity and carelessness that has plagued us.
They pinpoint the atrocities and offer an unapologetic and apoplectic response; they bulldoze their way through the untamed landscape hoping to regenerate and restore some order.
I love the video for ‘It Was Beautiful’ it is here that we get the album title, and we suspire, we hanker for something that eludes us, no matter how hard we try. The removal and adjustment of the background, for me reflects the changes in our mindset, in our physicality and in our evaluation, what we hold onto, what we lose, what is taken, what is left behind.
This is proper Rock music; the stuff that separates the men from the boys, this is the music denim, leather, lace and whisky were made for. A return to the gutsy, zappy, expressive sounds that are easy to understand and that have a way of winning your heart. We get a featured artist on ‘Out Of Time’ the dulcet tones of Elles Bailey, add a poetic and gentle quality, yet it leaves you broken as we lament our losses, the heartbreakers take their chances and take what doesn’t belong to them.
I get whiffs of Huey Lewis, a blast of Springsteen, as we open a new chapter with the wonderful warblings of Wayne and company.
With stolen glances and second chances, we get a ‘Practice Run’ a song that I am overjoyed to see on here, definitely one that I listen to repeatedly.
The tunesome intro at 0.28 for ‘Who Wants To Be In Love Anyway’ will have you on your knees before you can say Yma O Hyd.
The steamroller that is ‘Divide and Conquer’ snarls and struts across the screen, we have a changing of the guard now, but the damage done is nigh on irreversible. The track spits and bubbles with a rage that is necessary and exacting, so get up, stand up and adopt the stance, legs apart, grab your mics and guitars, put your backs into it and give it some welly.
Born of struggle, born of strife, mettlesome metallers, lion hearted rebels for life, trip the scarlet fantastic, pin your colours to the mast, and bring it on home.
Azra Pathan
Scarlet Rebels – Where The Colours Meet – out now