Review: Acid Dad ‘Take It From The Dead’
New York City young guns Acid Dad, climb another rung of the rock n roll ladder with a new album release this year; the swirling, dreamy, Take It From The Dead. Vaughn Hunt and Sean Fahey share guitar and vocal duties and flesh out their sound with drummer Trevor Mustoe on this, their sophomore album; an appreciable, impressive step away from their 2015 debut single, Brain Body, which, while an interesting introduction to their efficiency at producing catchy studio sounds, came across, to this writer, as a highly derivative dirge, where John Lydon joins up with Black Sabbath, with very little purpose. Yet, in all fairness, this is a very young band.
The eponymous first album admirably snapped itself out of the doldrums, and saw Acid Dad, do what it now does best: sculpt engaging guitar tones, and develop its preternatural ability to conjure up hook heavy riffs. That early period, replete with its stylistic growing pains, still did possess some of the important elements that make Take It From The Dead a highly successful evolution; this band wants to rock out and it is now very capable of doing so with a much more modern aesthetic. It took its fundamentals, then sat the fuck up, wrote highly singable melodies, along with decent turns of phrase, and got ‘a sound’. Few young bands make this leap.
Take It From The Dead is a mature record that lightly wears it’s newer influences on its sleeve, with nods to the best of multiple decades; touching on the Kinks with tracks like Searchin’, and the absolute killer single, RC Driver, (go on Radio… play this to death!) but then it goes on to adeptly dance us into the 80s, and 90s with sweet layers of Britpop invaders such as the Sterophonics and The Verve etc (without stolen violin parts).
BBQ is an air guitar-ish, and indie rock dance club hit. She Only Eats Organic, goes one step back to go two steps forward as a Ramone-esqe wide gait stance of a song. They’ve got influences but it’s still all, and very much ‘this’ band’s record. I love the punchy drum tones, and the guitars are so memorably all over the place, as well as being highly atmospheric. The arrangements are masterfully crafted to make you just want to frenetically jump the fuck up and down. It’s a really a great record.
Take It From The Dead is a mature record that lightly wears it’s newer influences on its sleeve…
A minor quibble might be that I would love to hear the bass guitar drop down a few more hertz to give everything just a touch more depth, but it’s really such a minor point that I almost feel embarrassed to bring it up. It just, for me, sits a little too close to the range of the guitars, which all sit very, very well together, and swirl wonderfully around spot on vocals, but it just doesn’t back up the kick drum enough in my humble opinion.
Overall though it’s a very good mix, on a very good record by people who absolutely know what they’re doing. Again, so damn minor really, and who the hell am I anyway? I’m a guy with a laptop and a very full glass of wine, which is going down quite nicely, thanks for asking. You do you guys! Alright..?! Just think about it… okay?!
The upcoming Midwest/East Coast Live tour is slated for Oct and is listed on their FB page along with label-mates Frankie and the Fingers. I will be along to either the Pittsburgh show at Spirit, or the Cleveland show at the Beachland Tavern. If you’re a smart cookie, you’ll be at a show near you.
Take It From The Dead was recorded in the band’s personal studio in New York City, and will be released on the 16th July by Greenway Records and The Reverberation Appreciation Society.
Label: Greenway Records | The Reverberation Appreciation Society
Band Links: Facebook | Instagram
