Disc Review of Defection by Slow Burning Car from www.divideandconquermusic.com
Troy Spiropoulos (vocals/bass), Adam Idell (drums/percussion), Jesse Damon (guitars) and Tommy Marcel (guitars) are Slow Burning Car. The band just released their fourth album entitled Defection. Just by looking at the titles of the songs and the album art, the band tries to establish some kind of image right away.
There is some kind of sci-fi fantasy theme they have going on here. Somewhere between the actual metal inspired music, delivery and art work I started to think of when Spinal Tap wanted to sing about Stonehenge. I honestly couldn’t tell if Slow Burning Car was being tongue-in-cheek or taking themselves completely seriously. Maybe it’s somewhere in between like Alice Cooper.
The song “Alpha Duplicor” definitely has a late ’70s and ’80s vibe. I can’t say the song sounds contemporary but it certainly has its charms. The music is fairly straightforward with distorted guitars, a steady beat and vocal harmonies. “Alpha Duplicor” does establish the type of vibe you can expect from the next five songs. I felt that they really were feeding a very specific vibe. “The Sunday Derby” and “You Can’t Stay Here” were standouts with an almost KISS type anthemic vibe that I really could get on board with.
Once the band gets to the seventh song they go in directions that were perplexing and unexpected to say the least. It felt like a different band or album. First is “Bedtime” which is an experimental ballad of sorts. I really have no idea what to make of the psychedelic, nightmarish spoken word part.
“Chrysanthemum” is a more straightforward acoustic balled that evoked mystical and magical imagery. The band then drops “Polar Warden” which is a slow moving almost nine-minute ambient piece that unfortunately disrupted the momentum of the album for me. The fun, intense rock songs felt like a fleeting memory and was in a different headspace. They close with the anthemic “Clouds” which goes back into the rock based song they deliver in the first six songs.
After listening to the album sequentially I started to think about Brian Eno. He is a master at creating albums which have a flow to them whether it’s Ambient 1: Music for Airports, Another Green World or Here Come the Warm Jets. As cool and enjoyable as some of these songs were individually I was having a harder time understanding where I was going and forgot how I got there. Suffice it to say I think the band should have concentrated on the rock based anthems and saved the other material for a different release.
That’s my subjective experience but it might not be yours. Despite the jagged journey I still encourage you to take a listen. There are a number of standout tracks here and I’m sure people who appreciate old school rock will enjoy what Slow Burning Car have to offer
By Matt Jensen
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