CD REVIEW: Electric Mary – The Last Great Hope EP

CD REVIEW: Electric Mary – The Last Great Hope EP
MGM Distribution
September 2014
Reviewed by Shane Pinnegar
10/10

There’s no point talking about Electric Mary ‘raising the bar’ with each successive release: they set the standard at the max from the start, and The Last Great Hope is no exception.

In five tracks the Melbourne band – veterans of any a high profile tour support, and with Deep Purple, Judas Priest, Whitesnake, E Street Band guitarist Steven Van Zandt, Alice Cooper and Glenn Hughes as converted fans – show not only their versatility and chops, but go so far as to prove that rock is alive and well.

Opener Sweet Mary C is dedicated to the original ‘Electric Mary’ herself – Mary Campbell, who was manager of Jimi Hendrix’s Electric Lady Studios in NYC when singer Rusty Brown first visited in 2003. Opening with some swampy slide guitar, it soon transforms into a feisty boogie that is worth the price of admission alone.

Welcome To The Otherside is a full forced F1 of a song that barrels along at a bollocksing pace, while Nicotine tones things down a notch with a great lyric – ‘this is not what I signed up for when you knocked on my front door’ indeed!

With every song a killer it’s almost redundant to declare that this brings us to the two aces in the pack, but these last two songs, although slower burning, channel all the heart, soul and rock n’ roll power of what is probably the best damned band in the country today.

With Lachy Doley’s perfectly sparse Hammond organ providing a great counterpoint to the monstrously broody guitars of Pete Robinson and Brett Wood Already Gone is a Deep Purple-meets-Oz Rock classic that builds to a crescendo before drifting away with style.

Closer So Cruel has a groove to it that will blow your mind – there’s the slightest hint of Beatles psychedelia, some great powerful vocals from Brown, and… well, a groove that is irrepressible. If Already Gone is the monster power ballad here, So Cruel is the classic rock masterpiece.

Promoters and fans alike are concerned about the future of rock n’ roll – who will be headliners when the current wave all retire? The answer is right here, so why aren’t promoters beating down the door to what is arguably the best rock n’ roll band this country has produced in the past decade?

Finally, let’s just mention the cover, featuring a nearly nude Madonna-like figure in all her innocence and loveliness, holding a Flying V guitar and ready to rock – which is as good as it gets.

Category: CD Reviews