Little Caesar – Eight.

Little Caesar – Eight.      8.5/10

I have been a fan of Ron Young (lead singer of the band) since their debut came out, hell I even followed him all the way to Manic Eden (and he was the best thing in that band) then the world turned and music generally of this kind was sent off into the back rooms and bars of America, I was over the moon when I got this album to review, I had every appendage crossed I didn’t get a car crash of an album.

I needn’t have worried, it has everything that I like in an album, good songs with a great old-fashioned vibe, now that’s not to say that the album is perfect, its not, and that simply adds to its charm. The great thing about this album is that it is old fashioned, the band concentrate on the songs, not all flash and shred, not that anything wrong with those things, its simply not needed all the time, and its not needed at all on this album!

It all kicks in with “21 Again”, which is what most people wish that they could be, it also has a killer chorus, then straight into “Mama Tried” a freight train of a song maybe not as lyrically happy as it should be, but still a great song, Then we head to “Vegas” and the first track that doesn’t gel straight away, its good but its what makes the score on the album start to falter when you compare it to the rest of the album its simply OK, the rest of the album has big muscles this simply needs to go the gym, the rolling stones vibe style of “Crushed Velvet” continues down a similar path simply not my cup of tea, it’s OK simply not great.

Thankfully the album kicks back in with “Good Times” a muscular ball of fun which rocks along quite nicely, then we take a trip to ballad town with a song that just sips Jack and Coke all the way there, “Time enough for that” is a great song and a welcome pit stop and change of direction it also stops the album being one dimensional, Ron’s vocals are so sweet on this, good honest music with just a subtle hint of understated Hammond organ in there.

“Straight Shooter” could have come off any of the early Aerosmith albums, it has that attitude and vibe. This then rolls into “Another fine mess” which again reminds of me of classic Skynyrd, laid back with a nice touch of sass. “Morning” shows a softer (not in a bad way) side of the band with Ron’s voice suiting the styling, this shows a band that’s happy with flexing their musical muscles.

The album then ends with “That’s Alright”, back into old school Aerosmith but with some clever kind of Jellyfish style backing vocals, it shouldn’t work, but hell yeah it does, the copy of the album I have has two “Bonus” tracks and hell they should have been on here all along “Mixed Signs” and “Slow Ride” (no not the Foghat song) should have been well up the track listing, not bonus material at all but bonafide album tracks!

I know the album has been out a while but I only got it a fortnight ago and I’m so pleased to hear an album of this class, just because something is slightly old school doesn’t mean it should be dismissed out of hand it’s a great album and deserves a much wider audience than I bet it gets!