By Jim Rowland
Remember The Datsuns? It’s fair to say these former press darlings of the NME may have fallen off the radar in recent years, partly due to the fact that they have not released an album in over six years. But all that is about to change with the release of their seventh album ‘Eye To Eye’.
I have to admit I have bittersweet memories of The Datsuns, dating back to the time of their first album in the early 2000s when, for a brief period, they were flavour of the month with the writers of the NME, who were hyping them up no end. At the time I had bought a ticket to see one of my favourite bands, Sweden’s The Hellacopters, at The Astoria in London, with the Datsuns as support. What irked me was that pretty close to the gig, such was the hype surrounding the Datsuns at that very time, the billing was swapped and suddenly the Datsuns were headlining and the Hellacopters, who I’d bought the ticket for in the first place, were unceremoniously relegated to the opening slot. What made it worse was that the NME-reading meatheads, who needed to be told what to like, didn’t take to the Hellacopters at all, with their hair being longer than the NME-sanctioned acceptable length, and proceeded to throw beer at them, short-circuiting their keyboard in the process and pretty much ruining their set. I’m not so sure they ever came back after that. To top it all some total dick was also accusing them of being Spinal Tap, which was rich considering the band he’d come to see (The Datsuns) were doing a pretty fine job of recycling old Ted Nugent riffs.
None of the above is, of course, the fault of The Datsuns themselves. They were a good band then, and on the strength of this album are a better band now. Much like The Darkness, once the indie press, and their sheep-like readers, had cast them aside in favour of the next flavour of the month, they had to take a step back and rebuild a following from the more discerning and loyal (classic) rock fan base they were designed for in the first place. And also like The Darkness, in time they have succeeded.
‘Eye To Eye’ contains 11 tracks made by a band who know what they like, wear their influences on their sleeves, and have great fun doing exactly what they want to do. High energy tracks like ‘Dehumanise’, ‘Warped Signals’, ‘Brain to Brain’ and ‘Bite My Tongue’ ooze catchy riffs and the hard rock dirty keyboard/guitar attack that clearly displays the influence of Gillan-era Deep Purple, although not in the vocal department, whilst the likes of ‘White Noise Machine’, ‘Sweet Talk’ and the raucous ‘Other People’s Eyes’ mix that influence with something very reminiscent of, ironically, The Hellacopters. In fact The Datsuns’ take on classic rock in the 21st century also brings to mind another very fine Swedish band, Horisont. Elsewhere, ‘Moongazer’ adds a bit of variety with a dreamy, glam shuffle that works a treat, and ‘In Record Time’ finishes the album in fine style with a slice of glam-infused psyche rock.
It all adds up to a very good album indeed that mixes classic rock and garage rock with a twist of psyche and a splash of glam into a pretty irresistible cocktail for the discerning rock fan. The Datsuns sound better without being flavour of the month.
Is the NME still going? I have no idea.
- ‘Eye To Eye’ is released tomorrow (Friday 28 May). You can get your copy HERE.
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