R means a rooster! V means vendetta! Moreover, the rooster is exclusively Gallic. But with the letter R, everything is much more interesting. These are “rock and roll”, and “rockabilly” and even “rhythm and blues”. Today we will analyze the latest album of the French trio “Hot Chickens” using all these letters and find out which letters are uppercase here.
The main achievement of the Rock‘n’roll Vendetta album is that “France’s oldest rockabilly trio” has finally stopped playing rockabilly. Instead, the Roosters took a course towards blues rock and rhythm and blues, which is much more suitable for their tavern spirit. After all, these respectable monsieurs are too respectable for jumping with a double bass across half the stage and other wild antics that European rockabilly needs like air.
Now, when Hervier Loison replaced the double bass with a compact, neat bass guitar, everything fell into place. Together with Christophe Gilet (guitar) and Terry Selye (drums), the trio, cheerfully pulling on masks of gentlemen with pink cheeks and moustaches, recorded as many as 13 tracks last April, 9 of which are copyrighted.
The sound from the 60s suited the updated role perfectly, and some of the more moving things resemble a heavier version of the Bravo group, which is a plus in my opinion.
This record was released on May 9th, so let’s see how winning it is.
The album opens with a cover of See See Rider in The Animals version. With such an elegant makar, Petushki not only outlines the stylistic era that the album is inspired by, but also shows her personal creative vision: much more collected and restrained than the unbridled version from the 60s.
Mister Jack is a relaxed “walking” blues. Terry’s unwavering shuffle and Christophe’s elegant solos. No, I definitely like these guys a lot more as bluesmen.
And this is confirmed by the next track Until We Die. After all, such harmonic moves, along with lyrics in the spirit of “while we’re alive, we’ll fight”, are much better perceived in tempos and styles accelerated to cosmic speeds. But, on the other hand, there is a very pleasant guitar here. Her solo antics save the day.
The return to the roots takes place in the royal ballad In My Way. A somewhat naive performance is good for her, and such a fervent rhythm section, along with an acoustic guitar, finally completes the pictures of the rock and roll dream from Dad’s garage.
The non-obvious advantage of the previous album, It’s Time To Rock Again, is that it was from him that the love of his native language began. Yes, apparently, they did not consider themselves to be the original French version of rock’n’roll Hot Chickens. Nevertheless, Je Ne Laisse Pas Tomber is a good example of a spirited French-language song. Perfect for a trip to the beach.
Goodbye Rockin’ Mama is the most blues of the house of weights and measures. She’s in Paris right now. Rock’n’roll Vendetta is no less a standard twist. It’s even somewhat surprising that such an expressionless composition is the title track. However, this does not prevent her from giving out the same beach mood.
J’écoute Eddy – sounds like one of the first associations with the phrase “French rock’n’roll ballad”. Well, it’s valuable for more than that. The same chill mood as In In My Way was a success.
Old Black Joe turned out to be very cheerful. Based on Jerry Lee’s version, the Roosters made it much denser and more assertive.
You can feel the inspiration of Jimi Hendrix himself in Hard Working Man, if he had been a couple of decades older in his heyday. It’s like the brightest song on the album. Terry’s primitivism, Christophe’s solo parts, and Hervier’s hoarseness are finally appropriate here.
Made in France is very strange. Any statement song is often cursed and doomed to fail. Especially this team. But that’s not the case here: the pleasant dirt in the parts, the unusual sound of the French-English surjica, and finally the unbridled fatal pressure in the drums (I’ve been waiting for this all record!) they make this song at least memorable.
After that, you even need to take a break, and the Blues Letter provides the desired respite. Very calm measured blues, the epitome of tradition.
The album ends with a cover of Eddie Mitchell’s A Crédit Et En Stéréo, which looks great in such a minimalist composition. However, this composition about the advantage of stereos over everything else manages to add a bit of fervent hillbilliness to the trio’s music.
Well, the transition to a different style turned out to be correct. Within the framework of the blues dimension, these monsieur look much more appropriate than in rockabilly. And what was the real situation with “France’s oldest rockabilly trio”? Judging by the previous album is not worth it, we’ve already figured that out. Let’s take the author’s collection for the first decade of the twenty-first century. There are a lot of standards here and they are executed more than worthily. We have to draw the unpleasant conclusion that time still has power over us. And you need to choose something appropriate for your age, at least psychologically.
Returning to the Vendetta, I would like to mention one hidden point. In terms of mastering, this album is much softer and quieter than its predecessors. Translating from sound engineering to Russian, this means that it is less intrusive. And this is a very correct transformation. Modesty adorns a person, even if he is initially Platonic. And Hot Chickens haven’t lost their feathers yet.
