DIRTY AMERICANS – Strange Generation

Dirty Americans’ debut album, Strange Generation, is now ready for a European release. Your reason to check it out is the incredible cool sound of the production. I don’t know how analogue the equipment they used in the studio were, but this sounds really classic and vintage. Soundwise, we are talking about a musical expression somewhere in between Lenny Kravitz and Bigelf, and Dirty Americans keep it real for fifty minutes.

The whole album grooves. The problem is, even though I can’t describe any of their melodies as weak, none of the songs really fasten themselves to my memory. I really have listened a lot to this album, but don’t ask me to sing anything from it.

None of the choruses manages to give the album any peaks that would make it noticed in a musical landscape. One exception would be “Car Crash”, where singer Myron sings /Your love is like a car crash!/. Every now and then during the last couple of weeks this line has popped up in my mind, but I rather give my own personal experiences on this issue the credit for making this part stick out, than assume this song will be a hit.

These guys come from the area outside Detroit, Michigan. And, in Detroit music is said to rock. I don’t know, it might be just a rumor. Who’s to prove it? The White Stripes? Kid Rock? However, Dirty Americans rock, and they sure sounds serious. And, they seem to know how to make use of just every quality each band member has got on his instrument. An attentive and detail oriented ( but not pretentious ) production care takes this.

Anyway, the album lacks moments that stand out! Tracks like “No Rest”, “Burn You Down” and “Deep End” rises above the average, but none of the songs succeeds in making me predict Dirty Americans a flying start of their career. However, Strange Generation is a good attempt in the right direction.

I know I will go back and listen to this album occasionally, but mainly because of the very groovy and vintage sound that you unfortunately don’t get to hear very often anymore. This is a good enough reason to me, and it might be a good enough reason for you too.