Mount Carmel - (2012) Real Women

Vintage, vintage, vintage.  This is what Mount Carmel is about, and they do it well.  Holding the record, looking at it, it cannot help but remind one of the great music from the 70s.  Swaggs opens this set, with a sweet riff that beckons the ghost of bands long gone by.  Perhaps it is my love of Humble Pie & ZZtop that gives me the idea that this song, the singing bass, guitar & drums all resonate so well to these ears, as this could be a lost track from an earlier Pie session.  Does this mean that it is not original?  Not at all, it just shows that these gents knew and know where to borrow and twist songs to suit their style, and it fuckin’ smokes on this song.   Real Women comes up next and it is without a doubt one of the better written songs I have heard in a very long time.  Lyrically it is a complete joy, the idea that things were so much better with women back in the day, than they are now.   It oozes with the sexual innuendo that Steve Marriot used to hold over his audience.  Again, I cannot help but feel a very nice Pie influence.  How can you go wrong with this?

Oh Louisa & Be Somebody continue on with the same retro vibe that the first two numbers displayed.  Oh Louisa a mid-paced rocker, & Be Somebody slowing things down with a nice blues number, ala early ZZtop.   The record picks up again with Choose Wisely.  A great boogie number.   Shit damn this song is a non-stop riff fest, pretty clear to these ears what a rock song should sound like.   Hear Me Now & Don’t Make Me Evil is more of the same fantastic mesmerizing boogie rock beauties.   With the latter having a sweet guitar lick reminiscent of Clapton when he was a guitar god.   Blast my brain, but this record just keeps getting better.  You just have to hear Rooftop, to see where I am coming from.  I swear I cannot get enough of this song, again the singing, bass , guitar and drums all feel synched in vibe, a place, that far too many bands will never  be able to reach.  It packs a whole lotta punch for a song just over 2mins long. 

We finish this record off with Lullaby.  Exactly the way I hoped the album would end.   A little introduction to reach the main course, an extended solo, guitar, bass & drums locked in a groove, ferocious it builds & builds, until your reach its climax.  This is what head nodding is all about, the future looks bright, but for now we have to “kiss this guitar goodnight”.

Quite simply this record is an early contender for album of the year.  IF you like music, like to boogie, like your rock, then you can do no wrong picking this up.  Easily one of the better groups around.  They outdid themselves this time around, although the first album is no slouch, this record certainly puts them into another stratosphere.  I can only hope to catch them live one day.

~Will Bissonette