CD REVIEW: THE ANGELS featuring Dave Gleeson – Talk The Talk

Shane | 6 February 2014 | Reply

THE ANGELS featuring Dave Gleeson – Talk The Talk
Liberation
17 January 2014
Reviewed by Shane Pinnegar
7/10

The pairing of Screaming Jet Dave Gleeson and the Brewster Brothers makes perfect sense and has already produced one thoroughly decent album in 2012’s Back on The Streets.

Talk The Talk is the follow-up and all the elements are in place: a tight as a duck’s arse rhythm section; Gleeson’s laconic hard rock vocals; The Brewster’s immaculate tone and tasty riffs…

You’re just waiting for the “but”, aren’t you? Well, sad to say, it’s a big one… despite some good songs, Talk The Talk lacks any sense of spark or urgency – it’s so laid back in parts (mostly the first half) that you almost think it’s a bunch of mates having a Sunday arvo run through of a bunch of songs they know back to front. If anything, the band sound over-rehearsed.

What’s missing is the very thing that made The Angels essential listening in the first place – the frisson and electricity and tension and drama that Doc Neeson brought to the microphone.

That’s not to say Gleeson does a bad job – and nobody expects a carbon copy. More, that the question becomes even more evident than on Back to the Streets – is this The Angels? Will this material stand shoulder to shoulder with the older classics? The Angels were always an exciting prospect on record as well as live, but there’s an urgency lacking on Talk The Talk, despite solid performances and decent songs.

Best of the bunch are the slide guitar of Broken Windows, You Can Make It and Personal Thing, all of which would be welcome in their live show nowadays alongside the classics. Album closer No Rhyme Nor Reason is a real departure for the band and stands out accordingly.