By Jim Rowland
It won’t be too long before we’re commemorating the 40th anniversary The Godfathers, who rose from the ashes of the Sid Presley Experience back in 1985. They’re one of those bands with a huge list of former members, and indeed new album ‘Alpha Beta Gamma Delta’, the first Godfathers album in five years, sees main man Peter Coyne assemble a completely new line-up from the one that recorded 2017’s very well received ‘A Big Bad Beautiful Noise’.
Released on their own label, Godfathers Recordings, ‘Alpha Beta Gamma Delta’ assembles 12 new tracks (plus the short freaky title track intro) that, it has to be said, simply ooze quality. The opening cut ‘Bring On The Sunshine’ sets the scene for the whole album in terms of the quality of song writing on offer here. It’s an upbeat, happy and catchy guitar tune with an accessible, commercial edge. The same can be said for tracks like ‘I Hate The 21st Century’, ‘Tonight’, ‘Midnight Rider’ and the anthemic ‘Straight Down The Line’.
The excellent ‘You Gotta Wait’ packs a more powerful punch, and some very catchy guitar hooks, with ‘Lay The Money Down’ and ‘I’m Not Your Slave’ also displaying a harder edge, and ‘OCD’ being nothing short of a punky rock’n’roll belter. ‘There’s No Time’ heads into acoustic ballad territory, and the slick, sleazy clever twists and turns of ‘Dead In Los Angeles’ provides a real highlight, as does the hard-edged ‘I Despair’ which saves one of the best for last and closes the album in fine fashion.
‘Alpha Beta Gamma Delta’ is a very well produced album that is slick, punchy and crammed with very well written, catchy tunes. Whilst much of it is upbeat with quite a commercial sheen in places, you can still rest assured that lyrically much of it still sits in an altogether darker place. Another quality album that will rank most highly against much of the Godfather’s catalogue.
- ‘Alpha Beta Gamma Delta’ is out now. You can get your copy HERE.
- The Godfathers also release their ‘Live At Rockpalast 2020‘ DVD on 4 November.
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