Kaleo - A/B

Move along, there's nothing new under the sun of rock music. Really? Yes, at first sight. Yet.

So there is first and especially "No Good", the (feminist?) song that tells what won't do you no good... but that does you so much good itself! It blows you away. Inevitable riff, pure rock.

Depending on the pieces, the singing switches from raucous yells to high-pitched hangings, a bit like Rover (relatively speaking).

There's the hit "Way Down We Go", which makes think of so many other things that I can't say which, there's a gospel-blues "Broken Bones", a spring-mounted "Glass House" with its palalalas, that would easily be seen as classical rock n' roll dancing. Bryan Adams isn't very far. And there is a little soul "Hot Blood", that Joe Cocker wouldn't disown, with its female backing vocals. I can see a beautiful likeness to Stereophonics on the whole.

From there on it all calms down a lot: the following is only ballads, as if you were in a good old 33 rpm record, with a hard side and a soft side. Hence the title A/B. From "All the Pretty Girls" to "Save Yourself", including a parenthesis in native language ("Vor í Vaglaskógi"), the spirit becomes more folk. You can feel that JJ Julius Son, the angel face leader, has some gas left in the tank, just like his 3 sidekicks. And it will be for a better whistling conclusion with the harmful yet breathtaking "I Can't Go on Without You".

The references are here. Those Icelandic have understood everything about rock, and have nothing to envy of North-Americans (who welcome them with open arms by the way). It only remains for them to develop a little more personal style and lyrics on these already excellent but somewhat conventional bases. To build something new at last, under the burning sun of rock music.