Recently, we focused on the peak album of The Bonnevilles : Arrow Pierce My Heart in 2016. A couple of years before, Chris and Andrew had recorded a wonderful live show in Belfast called Tape Saturation Overdrive. The next numbered album was released a couple of years later, in 2018. Without further ado, I suggest you plunge into listening to it.
Dirty Photographs (2018)
I want to say right away that this record reminded me of The Black Keys to a greater extent than The Bonnevilles themselves. I don’t think that’s a good sign, because the previous album was good for its originality. But let’s take the tracks in order.
The title Dirty Photographs from the first notes of the riff evokes the above-described similarity. It’s a good rhythmic blues with an everyday theme.
By My Side is already much more interesting. When the garage explosion occurs towards the end of the first verse, you finally realize that you have included exactly that duet. The rhythmic jokes in the solo are really exciting.
Don’t Curse the Darkness refers to everyone’s favorite bar From Dusk Till Dawn, but the lyrics here are again very mundane. It’s a good song with a very distinct organ in the background. Oh, still, I liked the simplicity of the early albums without the additional instruments more.
Long Runs the Fox is heavyweight, like MACK truck, pumped up in an auto repair shop from the show “A car for pumping.” It’s shaking, I can’t save it. It’s interesting, though, how much space there is on this record. The garage can be clearly heard humming.
The Poachers Pocket does not change the assertive tone. It also drags forward ponderously. Unless the miniature solo is more interesting here.
The Good Bastards is a completely fatal action movie. Good chant on the chorus. So far, perhaps, the second most memorable track on the album.
Panakromatik lives off a very pleasant pentatonic reef. The new seventies came sixty years earlier.
Fever of the New Zealot compares favorably with the previous compositions in tempo. Heavy, slow, this track does not reduce the intensity of gravity, but at least it gives you the opportunity to catch your breath. And yet, by the standards of the album, this long composition has a very pleasant attenuation. For some reason, it reminded me of that infinitely long version of “Suzie Q” from the CCR. I wish there was more variety in other songs.
The variety is a bit different than in the next The Rebels Shrug. This acoustic composition is actually the final piece on the album. A lot of strings in the arrangement makes it similar to alt-country, you know, like in the movies. Overall, it’s great, of course, but it’s not exactly what I expected from the duo.
And the scene after the credits is the Robo 6000 instrumental. No, this is the real neo-seventies! Also with that mysterious stereo.
Overall it’s a good album. As they say, dense and strong. But, as for me, it’s too passing. It’s not about its severity. I don’t want to repeat any of the tracks endlessly. It sounds like a great soundtrack to an adventurous road movie, but there’s no actual movie.
Such things were usually an omen of the imminent demise of the team. After all, the tenth years of the twenty-first century were coming to an end, and the new roaring twenties were already looming on the horizon of time. A huge number of our favorite teams have not survived the change of decades. Fortunately, we are not talking about The Bonnevilles. Last year, 2025, a new full-length album Age Of Monsters was released, which we will analyze further.
Age Of Monsters (2025)
02 Age of Monsters
03 Two Big Fizzies
04 The Bais
05 Shudacudawuda
06 Servant to Jesus
07 Relfex Liar
08 Sumpin’ I Don’t Wanna Do
09 Awaken from Slumber
10 Daedalus
11 N.A.A.B.O.
12 Parchman Farm
13 Guillotines
Download or listen online The Bonnevilles – Age Of Monsters 2025 (mp3, 106 Mb):
The album opens with Not a Penny for the Earl – calm traditional blues without excessive pumping. Unlike the last album, no one knocks down the door here.
The title page of Age of Monsters is already appearing in all its ponderous glory. She also presents a new sound of the band: garage punk with a lot of noise is replaced by light stoner rock. I like this much more: the arrangement has become more readable, and the pathos of the sound mud has been left in the past, like teenage moustaches. If it was difficult to praise the previous album, then the guys here made it very easy for me.
For example, the next Two Big Fizzies is a trendy break beat, over which a growling guitar competes with some amazing hysterical wailing.
The Bais slightly deceives the listener with a stealthy riff. After all, the song itself is very cool, relaxed and frivolous. I can even hear the notes of the Gorillaz project in it.
Then, again, quite unexpectedly, Chris and Andrew plunge us into some completely crazy grunge shamanism. Shudacudawuda is as difficult to describe as it is to pronounce. Everything happens in those three minutes. A real storm of mixed emotions.
The transcendental ecstasy games continue in Servant to Jesus. Absolutely amazing and deceptive stuff. At first it seems like a kind of gospel (with that name!), but gradually imperceptibly turns into something like dance britpop, or something from the repertoire of Queens of the Stone Age. Bravo!
The opening riff of Relfex Liar mistakenly resembles the previous record, but it’s a hoax again. Because what awaits us next is a mix of brit dances with Iron Maiden! And all this ends again with the same old-fashioned reef. Well, it’s just amazing!
In Sumpin’ I Don’t Wanna Do also seems to be a development of previous ideas, but due to the departure from an excessively garage sound, it sounds paradoxically unbridled. Or maybe it’s all about Cowbell. A lot of things get cooler with him.
Awaken from Slumber is riding the waves of Americana. They even brought a banjo. In many ways, this song resembles my favorite My Dark Heart, but in a more wildly Western manner.
Daedalus is a huge nod to the early Pink Floyd, from the time of the Pompeii concert. And the most successful of such attempts that I have ever heard. The musical and text quotes were a success.
The N.A.A.B.O. leads into completely unknown lands. Starting as the soundtrack to a neo-western, it turns into a mesmerizing Indian dance through a new cool breakbeat. This is no longer a reference to the psychedelics of the early Kicks, but a psychedelic of its own, with the spirit of the endless deserts of the subconscious.
Parchman Farm awakens from this hallucinogenic dream, straightforward, danceable and very high-quality.
The album closes with the soothing country song Guillotines. An excellent sedative after the above-described rampage. In some ways, it resembles a children’s song. Bye bye.
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It is impossible to find your own sound, how to find happiness. After all, this is not a destination, but a path of creative search and experimentation. The mistake of misidentification befalls many, and in fear of the unknown, the artist turns into a pale copy of himself. Even if the genre is archaic and retrospective, changes are necessary. With their latest album, The Bonnevilles showed everyone how to come back. The incredible and versatile work will not leave indifferent both fans of the band and casual listeners.I definitely have one more favorite album. I hope you have the same.
