The photos that accompany this CD can't be said to do WASTER any favours leaving them looking slightly uncomfortable and trying too hard to be"rock'n'roll".
Expectations therefore weren't particularly high as I sat
waiting for the first track to emerge. Ok, so who was it who warned usnot to judge a book by it's cover? Whoever it was who first imparted thatpearl of wisdom, I hold my hands up - lesson learned, fair enough?
Because, in actual fact, 'Rise Up' tears into my head (I'm wearing
headphones) on a splendidly scratchy but full-blooded garage/punk riff with vocals suitably throat-shreddingly manic. Nothing cod-metal aboutthis as I'd half expected but just a great 3 minute blast of tuneful energy and arrogance that could even leave the likes of The Hives gaspingfor breath as they struggled to keep up.
The tempo eases slightly for 'I Need Your Love' but it's a great song all the same and 'Leave It Alone' picks up were the opener left off. An effin' great riff, suitably snotty but ultimately meaningless lyrics delivered with commitment way beyond the
call of duty, pure rock 'n' roll. As good an opening triumvirate as I'veheard on any rock album for quite some time now.
All that said, I guess it would be overly optimistic to expect them to keep that momentum going throughout and indeed at this point the album takes a bit of a dip. Energy and commitment are still there a plenty but tracks like 'Don't Say Nothing', 'Alright', 'Hiya Whoa Yeah' and 'All The Time', although well played and all with their own virtues, drift off on a kind of clumsily gimmicky poppiness that belies the power that they have previously unleashed.
Bass and drums, draped with tremolo-heavy guitar herald the arrival of the next high point, 'The Nudist', blessed with the most controlled vocal performance on offer, "You got no money but you got soul / take your heart, you throw it to the dogs of the world" and we're in territory most successfully occupied by The Saints - a brass section would sound soooo good on this!
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A horrible sounding bass introduces 'I Don't Have Nothing (If I Don't Have Your Love)' but is quickly swallowed up by another snarling riff that promises much but doesn't quite deliver, partly I think because of theheavy metal' chanting that serves as a chorus. And so to final track 'My Dynamite' an up and down kinda thing, by turns gloriously stomping like some electrocuted swamp rat or, pointlessly chasing it's own tail through some scabby punk-pop shenanigans.
A valiant effort that at times suggests that, like in their pictures,
they're still a mite unsure of who and what they should be and how theyshould present that to the world. If I were reviewing an EP that consisted of the first three tracks on this album they would get a resounding ten out of ten and that's great by anyone's standards. In addition, with a track like 'The Nudist' they have shown that they can successfully throw in some satisfying contrast.
As it is, they appear to have set themselves a standard that as yet they are unable to maintain throughout a complete album. Waster are clearly capable of greatness, perhaps they just can't discern it yet.
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