One has to have a good digestive system and a capricious palate in order to appreciate the well dosed up blend of tunes in each surprisingly well-performed song. Lawler and Hickey must be very nostalgic for the 20th century’s music, as they managed to mingle the sounds of the great bands of the 40s with the Beach Boys of the 60s, sprinkled with a boogie-pop-like style and other combinations of musical instruments that surely make you understand the name of the album.
Codeine Velvet Club have balanced sounds and nice alternating male/female voices, giving us a dose of relief and understanding of the good intentions in trying a different approach to interpreting the needs of the new and different. Surely you can try it out and hear them yourselves, as they offer free downloads and you can find their videos online.
Leaving behind the first decade of the 21st century we find this album to be an attempt at uniqueness, but I would suggest more work will have to be done to achieve this goal. Listening to the songs gives the sensation of being at the lobby of a tourists’ hotel down in America, or listening to the background music of a series or TV movie. I could also imagine myself driving away for a picnic, which is not very feasible in this weather… but let’s dream on and drive along to ‘Hollywood’, meeting my ‘Little Sister’. So ‘Reste Avec Moi’ while I have ‘Time’ to see if we go to ‘Nevada’ and shine ‘Like a Full Moon’, ‘Begging Bowl Blues’ and though ‘Vanity Kills’, I can shout ‘I Am The Resurrection’!
Although the mixtures of sounds work, not much energy is felt but the melancholy of an attempt at the discovery of a new-era sound. Marketing has shown that repetition of a new song will finally get you and will make roots in your brain for the obvious involuntary recollection of a rhythm of a catchy song. Having heard the entire album several times made me relax but makes me forget what it was about.
You can find Codeine Velvet Club’s self-titled album available to download, along with some videos from the band, on their website: www.codeinevelvetclub.com
