By Jim Rowland
Meet The Loveless – the garage rock band fronted by Soft Cell’s Marc Almond along with Neal X, formally of Sique Sigue Sputnik and Adam Ant’s band, augmented by Iggy Pop’s touring rhythm section, Mat Hector and Ben Ellis, plus keyboard maestro James Beaumont. Featuring songs that originally inspired them in their teenage years, plus a couple of originals, ‘Meet The Loveless’ is their debut full length album.
Eleven of the 13 songs that make up ‘Meet The Loveless’ are covers of inspirational songs from Almond and Neal X’s youth, a potent brew of ’70s rock, ’60s R&B and garage rock. Sixties’ garage rock classics given a new lease of life here include The Sorrows’ ‘Take A Heart’, 13th Floor Elevators’ ‘You’re Gonna Miss Me’, The Strangeloves’ ‘Night Time’ and The Shadows Of Night’s ‘Dark Side’, and all are stonking versions, it has to be said. Bo Diddley’s (via the New York Dolls) ‘Pills’ sees Almond team up with guest Glen Matlock and the often covered ‘Shape Of Things To Come’ lends itself particularly well to Marc Almond’s vocal style.
Elsewhere, The Shirelles’ (or The Yardbirds) ‘Putty In Your Hands’ is heavied up considerably, Alice Cooper’s ‘Under My Wheels’ gets a version more faithful to the original, and the album’s closer ‘I’ll Be Gone’ is a totally grooving slice of 60’s R&B. Another great cut is ‘Hot Hard and Ready’, the sleazy nature of which again lends itself to Almond’s vocals, and with a subtle use of electronic sounds is the one track that is not a million miles away from the type of stuff the Soft Cell did.
As good, stonking and fun as all those covers are, it most definitely has to be said that the two self-penned originals included here are great, and hold up very strongly against the old classics covered. ‘Wild In The Streets’ is a raw, incendiary Stooges-esque rocker, with excellent use of brass (as is the case on a lot of the album), and some particularly wild guitar, whilst ‘Nothing At All’ heads more in the pure ’60s garage rock style of many of the songs covered. The quality of these two originals certainly suggests that The Loveless have a whole album of originals in them, which may, or should, be their next move.
‘Meet The Loveless’ isn’t perhaps what most people would expect from Marc Almond, but he’s always been a great vocalist and the dramatic nature of his voice gives many of the covers a different twist, and definitely works in a ‘garage rock’ band environment. Neal X sounds right at home doing this type of stuff, and as mentioned, the use of brass on many of the tracks is inspired. It all contributes to making this a thoroughly enjoyable, fun and totally rocking album.
- ‘Meet the Loveless’ is released on Friday (19 January).
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