Lurking within the heaviness and tractor-reversing-through-sludge dynamics of Hastings-based hairies Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell’s fifth album is a sense of poppiness. In an early Seventies Status Quo way, that is. Although it has a lengthy breakdown section, “Kind Boy” evokes Quo hits such as “Paper Plane” and “Caroline.” The vocals nod to the trademark Rick Parfitt and Francis Rossi blend. There is a tune.
However, this is not 1972 or 1973. Nonetheless, this power trio – named after the Admiral of the British Fleet and MP who perished at sea in 1707 – are wedded to an approach which might have scored a dependable audience back then. Dealing in a riff-centred rock with Black Sabbath undertones, the Shovell’s noise is in the ballpark of The Edgar Broughton Band’s freak-rock, the pre-heavy metal phase of Mõtorhead, Man at their most blunt and late-Sixties trio Bakerloo were they shorn of their blues predilections. Heavy. Very heavy.
The Trouble with the Shovell arrives seven years after its predecessor, Very Uncertain Times. There’s a new drummer, Glen Stebbings. Guitarist/frontman Johnny Gorilla and bassist and sometime Bevis Frond member Louis Comfort-Wiggett are the constants. Themes tackled on the new album include dealing with adversity (the grinding “Blue Mountain Dust”), trying to escape the mundane (“Head in a Noose,” with its lyrical nod to Flamin’ Groovies’ “Shake Some Action”) and wading through day-to-day drudgery (the circling, cycling “Another Greasy Spoon”). Overall, the crisp nine-track album’s 39 minutes exude power, relentlessness and – really – pleasure. Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell are having fun, and it shows.
Could this have been recorded in 1972 or 1973? No, as the trio know exactly what they are doing. An awareness of what's being drawn from is palpable. Indeed, the band declare that “we’re just a bunch of hairy drongos with a penchant for outdated greaser rock, acting as a conduit for the spirits that emanate from our dusty old record collections.” Also, the production is much more in-your-face than anything from these past eras. Dig in. But don’t expect to emerge unsoiled. The Trouble with the Shovell is permeated with grot and grubbiness.
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