Review Summary: 21st Century Led Zeppelin Arises
The Parlor Mob was formed in 2004 under the name of ‘What About Frank?’ with a Progressive Rock sound. In 2006, the band changed their name to ‘The Parlor Mob’, derived from the notorious 19th century gang. With this change of name, they also changed their style to a more Hard Rock/Blues Rock style.
Hard Times: Starts off with hard drums and goes into heavy bluesy guitar, the song is very much like ZZ Tops ‘Tush’. The lyrics are very strong (We live tough we die tough but it ain't our lives to choose. Cause every road we cross another dead end. Hard times in the heart of young men) the singer is like Robert Plants American nephew. You can tell of obvious Led Zeppelin influence in the vocals and guitar. One of my favourite tracks on the album. 4.5/5
Dead Wrong: A quick song but still 3 minutes long. This is very reminiscent of Wolfmother’s Dimensions, but this song is much better than Wolfmother, and also much more listenable with better vocals and even bass. 4/5
Everything You’re Breathing For: Again another song that is very similar to Wolfmother. The chorus of ‘little one, what can it be, you’ve hurt yourself what can it be’ is great with top notch vocals from Mark Melicia. 4/5
The Kids: bluesy guitar starts this song and it almost sounds sinister. The repeated chorus of ‘The Kids ain’t alright!’ is almost like a response to the Who’s ‘The Kids Are Alright’. The guitar is pummelling by the middle of the song, Paul and Dave are obviously working very hard in this song. 4.5/5
When I Was An Orphan: This song starts off with a lovely country acoustic guitar and bass soon comes in. Marks singing is beautiful, especially on the line ‘You can take the best of me, i’ll just take the rest of me’. This song shows great emotion. Towards the middle of the song, Marks voice gets higher and the bam! His voice during this is like Robert Plant during Stairway to Heaven, but Mark makes it seem original and Paul and Dave are doing more than pulling their weight. 5/5
Angry Young Girl: The song starts off like the last, with country style acoustic guitar, with Mark singing softly in the background. In the background, there is a psychedelic sort of guitar solo which just adds to the atmosphere. This song is good, but not as good as the previous 5, but on any other album, this would be a highlight, it just goes to show how special a band like The Parlor Mob are. 3.5/5
Carnival Of Crows: More heavy drums and guitar, like they should be! The short guitar licks are a delight and the overall sound of this song is great, especially with the chanting chorus. This is great to listen to after two acoustic pieces. 4/5
Real Hard Headed: I honestly think I’m going retarded after I originally read this as Real Head Harded... Oh well, back to the song. This is a nice song with early Rush style Geddy Lee like vocals from Mark. Great guitar, the best solos of the whole album so far. This is a very epic song. 4.5/5
Tide Of Tears: At 8 minutes, it is now for the longest song on the album! But don’t fear! This is probably the best song on the album. It is very much like Dazed And Confused. Boy was I upset when Mark didn’t sing ‘I’ve been Dazed and Confused so long it’s not true!’ This is another epic song, and while it is slow, you also want to know what is going to happen next. There are excellent guitar solos during this song, popping up here and there, and at around 5:00-6:40, there is the best of the bunch, an amazing solo. Soon after that there is another solo and then the song leads out getting heavier and then quickly gets softer at the end. Spectacular. 6/5
My Favourite Heart To Break: A lot more of the bass in this song. There is an amazing melodic chorus. This song is like the 21st Century update to ‘Babe I’m Gonna Leave You’. There is great musicianship during this song (but that’s not to say there isn’t during the others either). 5/5
Bullet: This song has the funkiness of Deep Purple Mark III, and boy is it great. The line of ‘Woman I’m Gonna Try Try Try!’ is great and very Led Zeppelin Like, But the best part comes when Mark sings ‘You Can’t Take The Bullet Outta The Gun’. More excellent guitar and there is even some Prog stylings in this song! 5/5
Can’t Keep A Good Boy Down: This is a great ending, this song would sound right at home on Led Zeppelin III. Great lyrics and great band singing. This song sounds like it was recorded in a pub (bar to the Americans) it just has that atmosphere with clapping and group singing. 5/5
This is one of the best albums I have heard in a long time, the musicianship is astonishing, they sound like real pro's. The songs go well together and there definitely is nothing bad I can say about this band so far. This is my first review, so comments and advice would be very much appreciated!
