Buy this album, Call your radio station, Bosstones need to be heard!
Long time fan of the band and I was surprised to find out a new album was cut. I enjoyed Dicky when he hosted the Mighty Morning Show on Indie 103.1 out here in Southern California but it wasn't the same without the rest of the band. Hearing this album restores my faith in the Ska movement because instead of putting out just anything, this is a great album! Favorite song... "Don't Worry Desmond Dekker". I am hoping for another live album with their new work to complement "Live from the Middle East" (hands down one of the best live albums ever!
Buy this album, call your stations to get more Bosstones on the radio. They deserve to be heard!
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Five long years, millions of beers...
The first note hits you like a train. It's something you saw far off in the distance, a faint light coming from miles away. You stand there on the tracks and watch as it collides with your senses, as the force of something bigger than you imbeds itself in your brain. Indeed, the BossToneS are back, so girls dry your tears.
It's been all too long since the BossToneS announced their hiatus and effectively cast a dark cloud over the lives of millions of fans, not to mention music as a whole. So many of us listened to Avoid One Thing and The Street Dogs, tuned in religiously to Jimmy Kimmel Live. We watched with bated breath as Dicky Barrett sang "This Time of Year" all by himself with a touch of sadness in his voice and a look on his face like he was lost in an unfair world. The mayhem was nowhere to be found, the fire had left his eyes.
Tune in now to the documentary videos surrounding the reunion Hometown Throwdown show and you see eight guys who have genuine joy on their faces, including a grizzly voiced frontman whose voice cracks with emotion as he addresses his first loyal crowd in years.
The album starts out screaming of a homecoming. You listen closely as indiscernible noise comes through the speakers, not at all unlike the opening of "Pay Attention." And just like "Let Me Be," a couple of staccato power chords followed by a solid bass line pound through the air and you're hooked. You never had a chance. The first three tracks on the album are brand new and they're amazing. They've got the ground breaking horns of "Question the Answers" and more hooks than a deep sea fisherman. The guitar work is amazing, faintly reminiscent of older BossTones releases.
The rest of the album consists of B-sides and unreleased tracks recorded over the years. A lot of these are pretty hard to find, so it is nice that they're all available in one neat little package. The songs span back to the "Question the Answers" days and come up to tracks that didn't make it onto "A Jackknife to a Swan."
Buy this album. It's the most important release of the last five years. Show your support. Make sure the BossToneS know that a world without them is a world without happiness. And a world without hope.
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