Shotgun Alley Album Review

I wanted to like Shotgun Alley, I truly did.  Like any other band I felt they deserved a fair go.  I was willing look past the clichéd logo on the front, I could even forgive the macho posing photos on the back (it is supposedly a hard rock album after all), but I started to have misgivings about the time I opened up the lyric sheets and started reading.

“Hey sexy lady/I got something for you/You’ll wanna take your clothes off”.  Really?  How about “Hey all of you out there in Generation Rock/All the beautiful ladies/Well get up and don’t stop”? 

Despite all this I still managed to listen to the album.  I even listened to it right through.  Twice.  And I’ll tell you why.

It’s not bad music. Sure it’s a pastiche of 80’s glam rock/hair metal.  It’s Bon Jovi meets Poison, only with lyrics that appear to have been written by a 15 year old boy.  But the band can sure play.  They’re tight, they seem to work together well, and Mark Falcon (who has a name made for this sort of music) can sing, despite my initial fears. 

It’s hard to tell whether Shotgun Alley take themselves seriously; I’d hope not but I have a sneaky suspicion that this isn’t a joke band, but one who believes in what they’re doing here.  And that would be a shame, because when treated as a tribute to the 80’s this is a fun band.  If you look at it any other way it’s hard to see how they can keep it going.

So listen to Shotgun Alley, but listen to them for the skill of the musicians, for their entertainment value, but don’t expect too much in return.