By Jonny Bakes
I’ll be the first to admit that I’m particularly up to speed with the comings and goings of the Boston music scene. When I think about the scene in Boston, I’ve always assumed that it’s all Irish bars and Dropkick Murphys clones, but obviously that’s not the case as this “new” release shows. Why “new”, I hear you ask? Well ‘Selfish Propensities’ is perhaps the only documented evidence that the band Nana existed in mid to late ‘90s which has recently been uncovered in a box of CD and written by Tom Baker (not the Doctor Who one, The Dirty Truckers one). So, while this may be new to most of us, this is certainly a bit of a relic of its time.
Considering that this is a bit of a time capsule of an album, there’s still some parallels with other bands. Particularly, I’m getting quite a strong Wildhearts vibe from this with the radio-friendly sounding tracks and the switches between up-beat anthems and more melancholic bluesy tracks. Overall, the sound is very inoffensive in that it’s pretty mellow for the most part and generally just blended into the background a bit for me! This will definitely appeal to a wide group of people though, certainly something here for fans of modern Bon Jovi, The Wildhearts, Stereophonics and a whole host of 90s alt-rock bands. This album must have just been a victim of wrong place, wrong time, as I can see this having been pretty commercially successful if it had hit the UK in the early-mid 2000s!
One of the standout tracks for me on this album is the significantly punchier ‘Foxhole Friend’ that picks up the pace to something a little more on my level. It has an infectiously toe-tapping tapping rhythm and a catchy guitar riff that pairs well with the melodic vocals of Kevin Salem (of Dumptruck) to give a catchy little number that will at least grab your attention from the start, and for many will keep that attention throughout the song.
Nana even manages to inject some punk into their sound at times to dig a bit deeper into an aggressive energy that makes the songs a bit more relatable, and more like the Wildhearts sound that I picked up on during my first listen. ‘Fake Me Out Again’ is a pretty prime example of this and also winds up being a pretty good way to tie off the album on a high note after what has been an album of ups and downs so far.
All in all, this is an album that will most likely appeal to loads of people, but I’m just not sure it really did it for me. While I appreciate the somewhat retro (now) alt-rock sound, it’s not something that I would find myself listening to regularly. That being said, it is a very well produced album that captures the spirit of what now seems like a very much simpler time. So if you’re feeling a bit nostalgic, then you should go ahead and give this a spin to whisk you back.
- ‘Selfish Propensities’ is released tomorrow (Friday 14 August). You can get your copy HERE.
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