This has been available for a while from: http://torino74.bandcamp.com/album/torino-74 but it’s well worth writing about, so here goes.
At first, I worried that the band may have pooled their clichés in writing this album; there is a sense of Americana at work here from the power punk guitars, to the vocals, artwork and even the name… Car buffs will tell you that Starsky & Hutch drove a 1975 Ford Gran Torino, film buffs will probably argue that the final track’s name is pointless because nobody can fight quite like Philo Beddoe, Clint Eastwood’s character in the Any Which Way films, and the cover artwork evokes route 66 with its endless miles of pylons. However, let’s look past that because it just doesn’t matter when you are as infectiously, bouncily, catchily attention grabbing as these guys, and the pylons were probably photographed somewhere on the A61 anyway!
Emergency and Shovels and Precipitation are neck and neck for the honour of best track in my opinion, other highlights include Norwegian Blue, Driver and Winterburn. It’s probably safe to say that my only question when listening to this is, how are they not more widely known? I know guitar bands are a little out of fashion with the mainstream and, to be frank, I’m glad because it means bands like this get some space to mature rather than being catapulted into the limelight only to implode on album 2 when ‘the Man’ wants his advance and more back. Get excited about them, try to see them live, buy their record, they’re worth it.
Matthew Rhodie
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