One of my hobbies is to search for music that is not available on the Internet. And when I find something that I like, I have a desire to share it with the people… The latest album by the Swedish band Black Knights, called Gold Teeth And Silver Charms, was released as early as 2014 – that is, more than ten years ago – and still has not received any online release, so it’s time to post it. Which is my main goal. The article is a kind of side effect, and I’ll write it in my usual style: I’ll just click on the play and try to describe my feelings about each song individually. Go.
02 Come on Let’s Rock
03 My Heart
04 Leaving Time
05 Without You
06 Terrible Times
07 Invisible Love
08 Who-Wap-Wap
09 How Much Love
10 Bus-Stop-Queen
11 Repair My Heart
12 You Never Can Tell
13 The Boot-Black Boy
14 Rollin’ Home
15 My Baby’s Gone
16 Raise the Flag
17 Raw Rhythm Boogie
18 A Swedish Boy Don’t Cry
19 Blue Blue (K)night
20 Jack in the Box
Download or listen online Black Knights – Gold Teeth And Silver Charms (2014) full album (mp3, 120 MB):
So, the album opens with a moderately cheerful track called, actually, Gold Teeth And Silver Charms. I can’t say anything specific about the music, but I liked the description of the song’s title character with gold teeth, long sideburns, and a gold ring on each finger. But, in general, in my opinion, the title track does not stand out in any way, although it sets it up in the right way.
The second track is a faster and more rocking Come On Let’s Rock. On the one hand, it’s also quite simple, but there seem to be more vocal techniques in it. There is a hoarseness in the vocalist’s voice, the band sings along, screams in the background during the guitar solo – all this sounds very funny and exciting.
The third song, My Heart, is the first slow track on the album. Definitely very melodic, although, as it seems to me, somewhat deviating from the classical sound. In some ways, it just resembles the classic pop-rock of the eighties. My Heart is immediately followed by Leaving Time, a track in which I definitely liked the drums and vocals: almost the entire song is sung in a two-voice chorus, plus the lead vocalist takes high notes quite beautifully in the chorus. It’s a very nice record.
Without You is another rather slow ballad. Melodious, but nothing particularly remarkable. Except that I liked the drummer’s work again and the pleasant clicks in his performance in the background. And after the slow one, there’s a suddenly bouncy (which I never expected from the title) track called Terrible Times. Such an unusual sound made me listen and, as it turned out, this song tells us about how hard it is for an old-school rocker to live in our time. How he has to search for records on the Internet, because all the local stores are closed, there’s nowhere to even buy a new outfit… but the hero of the song does not give up and continues to rock. It’s a very pleasant, positive record, which I really liked as a result. Probably because it’s very easy for me to associate myself with a character from a song.
Track number seven – Invisible Love – is once again something unhurried and romantic. However, so far this is the most classic-sounding slowie, with a noticeable bass, very pleasant vocal ripples… It’s not hard to imagine such a song performed, for example, by Gene Vincent. Definitely the best slow song of the album so far.
Who-Wap-Wap would like to highlight separately. I recognized it from the first words, and it’s probably the most memorable track on the album (and I first listened to this CD about two years ago or something like that). It’s mostly the words that come to mind: the eighth song of the album is a little joke. Here, for example, is the first verse:
Who brought the lighter to the explosives warehouse?
Who could be such a fool?
There were only three of us there, and everyone was looking at me.
Someone decided to smoke, and there was a boom.
Who brought the lighter to the explosives warehouse?
Please don’t blame me for this.
In the second verse, the phrase “there were only three of us there” changes to “there were two of us there,” and in the last verse, “only one of us was there, and I have to admit that it was me,” clearly hinting to us that in previous cases, the protagonist was not just like that. They were pointing fingers. In general, all this has sunk into my head personally. I can’t say that the song stands out for its sound or vocal work, but the lyrics are definitely very expressive.
In the ninth song, titled How Much Love, a very distinct double bass part stands out the most… and there seems to be some Hawaiian notes in it. All in all, he’s a tough middle-class guy, but nothing more. The next track, Bus-Stop Queen, is perhaps even more unremarkable. Unless the guitar is playing on it too much… a classic party. There’s something about her sound… Something I’ve already heard more than once. Maybe this technique has a specific name, but I’m not familiar with it.
Half of the album is behind us. The next record is called Repair My Heart, and there are some memorable moments in it. For example, when all the tools stop before hitting a barrel (at least, I think it’s a barrel). Or a cool vocal technique, the name of which, again, I do not know… It’s a thing when a vowel is sung… with an interruption, or something… A lot of people use this kind of thing in rock and roll. In general, in my opinion, Repair My Heart is the most pleasant track on the album so far.
You Can Never Tell is, oddly enough, not a cover of the famous Chuck Berry song, but a completely independent work. A very cheerful track, in which, however, it is still difficult to single out anything specific – it’s just well and expertly performed rock’n’roll. But The Boot-Black Boy once again stuck in my mind with the text – it’s a very noir story about how in 1877 a shoe-shining boy was shot by a customer who refused to pay the fifteen cents due. The story is highlighted by a deep and very atmospheric solo, and overall, I enjoyed it. Almost the best song of the album… except for the next one.
Rollin’ Home is a damn cool track about a guy driving home on a lonely night road. It’s after midnight, friends are on the back couch, there are no more cars on the road, stops are only at gas stations, coffee in cups is strategically diluted with moonshine, and rock and roll is playing on the radio for everyone who is awake. Definitely my favorite song of this album, the most atmospheric, and at the same time very fast and melodic.
In the next concert video, the Black Knights perform the song Worried Man, which is not on this album, but you can appreciate the exceptionally soulful atmosphere of their performances.
And then there are six live performances waiting for us. Do you even like that? Personally, I’m not very good, and nine times out of ten I prefer studio recordings. But since we’ve come this far, it’s too late to retreat… I would like to note right away that all six songs were performed, apparently, at the same concert and are, in fact, one whole record. So, we can say, a small mini-concert album in addition to the main disc.
Bonus track
The rest of the album begins with the song My Baby’s Gone, and I must say, I like the deeper, heavier sound of this record. And anyway, in general, all the instruments and vocals on live shows – everything sounds extremely intense. Despite my dislike of live recordings, I have to admit that everything was very well set up here.Perhaps even better than in most of the studio recordings…
Raise The Flag is a song about Southerners and the Confederate flag. However, I can’t single out anything in it… except for the fact that someone somehow hit the microphone at the end of the track and recorded a distinct “bang” that pisses me off. However, I did not clean the record. But I really like Raw Rhythm Boogie – a fast rocking performance with aggressive backing vocals is very exciting. This song has a studio recording, from the old Black Knights album from 1998, but needless to say, the recordings that have been recorded for 16 years are very different.
Next on the disc is A Swedish Boy Don’t Cry, a very cheerful and melodic song about a broken heart… Surprisingly, I like the live part of the album, perhaps even more than the studio part. Personally, I never expected this, but the Black Knights play really well live. And, again, the instruments are tuned well, the sound is downright juicy. This seems to be missing from the studio recording.
Blue Blue (K)night is a slow song that you can also listen to on the old album from ’98. Here, in the concert performance, again, there is more of something like that… aggressive. A guitar with a hoarse, much deeper voice of the vocalist… Although I really like the studio version too – it’s slower and for some reason it feels like it’s one of Buddy Holly’s songs…
And Gold Teeth And Silver Charms closes with the track Jack In The Box – and this is probably my favorite song of the album… but I won’t take it into account in the overall standings. Besides, I definitely like the studio recording better this time, and it can be heard on the 2004 album, which is actually called Jack In The Box.
And, to be honest, Jack In The Box deserves to be the title track of the album much more than Gold Teeth And Silver Charms. And anyway, the album of this article as a whole… No, he’s not bad, he’s just, well… very average. It’s good for everyone, but it’s hard to find really stand-out or really bad moments in it. Apart from the lyrics of the song Who-Wap-Wap, in general, nothing is remembered. I would probably still emphasize Repair My Heart, The Boot-Black Boy, Rollin’ Home and Jack In The Box… but the last one, as I said, has a more fun studio version, and the other three still don’t have anything particularly remarkable.
On the other hand, none of this changes the fact that this is just a good album full of expertly played rock’n’roll. I got to know the Black Knights band thanks to the Rockabilly Nationals compilation, and since then, by and large, they have not disappointed me. Gold Teeth And Silver Charms is no exception: yes, the album may not be particularly memorable, but… I love rock and roll, so I liked this CD. If you have read this article up to this point, I suspect that you have some interest in the mentioned musical genre. So I just don’t see any reason not to click on play if you haven’t already.
