Customer Reviews

Pound for Pound

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Hey! this record is simply great! Great cover...great titles, great song! It's made of blood, sweat, sunrays on white skin.....Jennifer's voice is sharper and aharper and Neil's voice just great....the choose the harmolodic form (Ornette Coleman rules, ok?)and decide to leave most of their noise sound behind them. positive thoughts and intelligent visions of life and world, strange allucinations, the same acid atmosphere of the past but also melancholy, love of love, love of people, and the most intelligent attitude towards waht's usually thought as"rock'n'roll". I can't find the right words to explain what i feel when i listen to it but I sure say that Pound for Pound is a classic RTX album and as any other RTx album it's different from all the others.... They're genius, simply great in everything,they're the enbodiment of blues and passion, they're what history of rock'n'roll had been waiting for...even though they probably won't never reach the fame of Elvis....they're indipendenti from all, and indipendent it's how they shall remain. wow! see them live! Jennifer's my Heroin! >it's in your blood, it's in your brain, drive them all insane.....

I have enjoyed--well, maybe not exactly enjoyed--have listened to Royal Trux--for years, and eagerly await each new CD. This is especially true since they returned to Drag City, stayed clean, and started churning out more and more glorious skronk. Well, as soon as I got home and put on Pound for Pound, I realized that someone at the CD store had accidently slipped in a missing slab of Led Zepplin. This disc must have been recorded on a day that their whiny-screamy-banshee singer, whatever-his-name-is, ate razor blades washed down with Drano to create the gutteral rasps that only accentuate the power of the music. Let's face it, as RTx discs go, this is only rock and roll.

But I like it.

As much as I love the Royal Trux and have followed their incredible evolution since their 3rd album, it seems that they've possibly hit another slump after a string of amazing releases following "Sweet Sixteen," the nadir of their career. Since 98's "Accelerator" all the way up to this year's "Radio Video," RTX have churned out some of their best music ever with the frequency of super-prolific bands like Stereolab, so I was expecting yet another great LP when I heard about "Pound For Pound."

Well. It's OK. Most of the record follows the surprisingly straight-ahead and streamlined (for them) rock of their last 2 albums, but some of it gets bogged down with the same kinda cheezeball wanky riffs that seriously turned me off to "Sweet Sixteen" and parts of "Thank You." "Platinum Tips" is a prime example of RTX's excessive formula actually feeling like too much for once: Hagerty's main guitar lick is repeated over and over throughout the song, and while it's pretty corny, it would be tolerable except that then the bass player comes in with the most hackneyed-sounding riff EVER that made me almost destroy my speakers.

So yeah, "Pound For Pound" is all right; definitely get it cuz the good outweighs the gawd-awful, but be prepared to relive some of the nastroid qualities of their Virgin releases that occasionally rear their deformed heads on this one.

If you're new to the Royal Trux get "Cats and Dogs"--it's one of the best albums ever made

I have great expectations for Royal Trux records. VETERANS OF DISORDER, THANK YOU, and CATS AND DOGS are favorites because they evoke a mood in the listener unlike this new one. Sure we got riffs and anthems and a "big" production, but where's the dirt and meat? I either want some failed experiments (as on SWEET SIXTEEN) or some blatant statement rock and roll (like the Dylanesque ACCELERATOR). The rhythm section is skilled but has no chemistry, the riffs are bluesy and distorted but are not infectious. With the exception of the soft-rock hit jokes "Sunshine and Grease" and "Small Thief" there is not a thing to write home about. The drums sound weak with two much studio reverb. The album ends before the band ever really gets in the pocket, as if they all met in the same town one night and threw together the songs they all knew. If any other band's name was on this 3rd-rate Grand Funk-clone excrement they'd be laughed straight out of amazon.com. This band scored way too much dough from Virgin Records to be able to get away with putting out an album this half-baked. At times Royal Trux can almost seem like the perfect rock band. Maybe next album they'll get back around to it.

I've tried and tried to tune into this album, but it doesn't click for me. I love the opening track, 'Call out the Lions', 'Fire Hill' (except for that aggravating Woody Woodpecker guitar solor - YUCK) and 'Deep Country Sorcerer', but that's about it. I can't even make it past Deep Country Sorcerer - i lose interest real fast. not great. You want ROYAL TRUX great? get THANK YOU, VETERANS OF DISORDER and ACCELERATOR. Thanks for reading.

...as long as there are bands such as RT around! Basically Royal Trux are the musical equivalent of a party that has run amok. They can't absolutely sing (in fact their voices are so off-key that you'll wonder if they're being out of tune on purpose) but that just adds to their charm. This record is filled with blues-rock and boogie-rock inspired tracks (only that they don't sound like the average boogie-rock number, they're more like a noisy and mad version of the Rolling Stones). I love this album!!

Well here's a thing; a Royal Trux love album in all its resplendent glory. Never have the Trux sounded so cosy and yet so seemingly inpenetrable.

My expectation was a bonkers shouty noise album along the lines of the recent Radio Video Ep but true to form the Trux decided to take another turn. Alt country blues wah wah noisecore/Carpenters vibotronic hellscream is, I feel, the most appropriate description.

These tracks are reminiscent of some the Carpenters finer moments if the Carpenters had smoked a lot more and discovered cowbells and a wah wah peddle.

Careful Britney.