Uber Rock reviews Feral Children 7"
PRIMA DONNA - Feral Children 7"
| CD Reviews
|
Written by Gaz E
|
Friday, 03 June 2011 05:00 |
There are two reasons why you should love Prima Donna.
Firstly, their beautiful brand of music, mixing a full-on 70s glam stomp
to the sneer of vintage punk and new wave in a trashy modern fashion
that is retro-fuelled yet never kitsch, is essential listening.
Secondly, you should want to listen to a band who does all of the above.
Seriously. If you don't, please shut the door on the way out and leave
us cool kids to it...
The 2008 album, 'After Hours', from LA-based glam punks Prima Donna
was a sensation. For so long that 'glam punk' tag was used and abused by
metalheads who thought that a sleeveless Sex Pistols shirt and poor
choice of cover version was all they needed to fit into a subgenre that,
when done well, rubs its skinny shoulders with the best of them. But
Prima Donna, blessed with hair that would make an unlikely lovechild of
Clem Burke and Ronnie Wood descend into a jealous rage, are the best of a
glorious bunch of modern reprobates sunbleached with timeless bursts of
retro rock sounds who have a platformed heel in both the Seventies glam
and punk/new wave camps, producing songs that could easily pass as
vintage hit singles.
'Feral Children' is the band's first release since 'After Hours' and
was produced by Bruce Duff and mixed by Frank Meyer, the duo responsible
for the knob-twiddling of that great album. Available as a limited blue
vinyl single and written by frontman Kevin Preston, 'Feral Children' is
a gorgeous throwback of a song, its sugar-coated hooks grabbing a hold
of you and dragging you back to the Seventies. I can't help but picture
the band miming along to this track on a 1976 episode of Top Of The
Pops, drums at the front, wide-collared girls gazing starry-eyed at the
band members, dreaming of a cherry-popping clinch as they mouth the "I
will corrupt you" line. Other bands have tried and failed to recreate
this sound, Prima Donna have perfected it. No other song this year has
made me want to sex someone up and dance like a Mud roadie at the same
time, thereby making it essential listening.
The single is backed with a version of 'Rip Her To Shreds', the
Blondie classic from 35 years ago. Normally, a modern band attempting to
put a version of a timeless song like this out there for mass
consumption would have me wanting to kill within its first
minute.....but Prima Donna are the perfect candidates to tear out a
decent version and, not surprisingly, they don't disappoint. Like there
was ever going to be any other outcome. As faithful and honourable a
cover as you could ever hope for, this version of a vintage slab of
badass bitchiness is as cool as anyone, anywhere could have made it.
Whether you are an ageing or wannabe cool kid, Prima Donna are the
band for you. The veterans can listen to the band and marvel at their
on-the-button retro sound, while the younger
generation of glam music fan, forever spouting that they were born in
the wrong decade, can grow up with a cooler than thou band who will make
them feel like they're finally living it.
http://www.uberrock.co.uk/cd-reviews/26-june-cd/2549-prima-donna-feral-children-7q-acetate-records.html
