The Electric Mess House on Fire is Better Than You Deserve
The Electric Mess
House on Fire
Sound Flat Records, 2014
Think of 1974 Lou Reed fronting The New York Dolls (plus a keyboard player)and they’ve all been awake for a week listening to the first 3 Kinks albums non-stop. That’s what The Electric Mess sound like. And thank God they do.
This is like the coolest post mod, mod album you may ever hope to hear. Bring your own Ritalin and/or Adderal and be prepared to stay up all night because this is a band intent on working out some serious dance floor grind.
There are hooks, fat organ riffs, edgy camp attitude and One amazing song after another. With only one song clocking in at over four minutes, this isn’t for the faint of heart. Agitated and subversive, this is garage flavored rock at it’s best. More refined than most three chord bands because of the panache and aplomb with which they attack the songs The Electric Mess are probably an absolute nightmare to have to follow live. “Leavin’ Me Hangin’” is a monster of a number at the center of the disc which will leave you breathless just listening to the damn thing.
“Better to Be Lucky Than Good,” “The Thing That Wouldn’t Leave,” and the title track “House on Fire” are also phenomenal tracks. But as stated earlier by an noted expert, (me), this whole damn thing kills from start to finish.
Even if you buy this now, you will kick yourself for not having bought it sooner. Go! I say, go!
