Somewhere along the way, from the transition from rock and roll as the dominant force to its younger sibling, rock music, taking the reins, we lost something. Something vital. If rock and roll was all about swing and groove, fun and frenzy, beat and boogie, what replaced it seemed to take itself all too seriously. We found ourselves facing a tsunami of big and monolithic music, earnest and lacking awareness, relentless and one-dimensional, big, perhaps, but not as clever as it likes to think it is. But fear not, there are still those who understand what made the genre work, and the brilliantly named Lightning Gusto is one of them.
“Good Citizen,” his new single, is the perfect example of what I’m talking about. Sure, his song is full of incendiary guitar salvos, pounding beats, and big vocals, but, crucially, it also has space, space to let the light in…and not just the light, the groove, the swing, the energy, the bounce… everything you need for that foot-on-the-monitor, fist-in-the-air, heads down, no-nonsense endless boogie experience.
At last, someone who gets it. Someone who remembers. We lost the fun in the rush to make music that was bigger, brasher, and more bombastic. Lightning Gusto (such a great name; it sort of sounds like a cross between a vintage blues singer and a top-of-the-range Toyota) is all about bringing back that fun. Sure, he delivers us music which will tick all the boxes with the rock fraternity, that goes without saying, but whereas a lot of rock music made today sounds as if it could be played on an endless loop to help extract information from military prisoners, “Good Citizen” sounds like the opening salvo at the best rock and roll party you have ever been to.
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