Though he will always and forever be known as the frontdude for Australian rock & roll icon RADIO BIRDMAN, vocalist ROB YOUNGER has actually led the NEW CHRISTS for a longer duration (20 years!) than Birdman. Gloria, the Christs’ curiously titled latest slab, is exactly the kind of record Younger’s been making for decades: an exciting punk & roll album with an arty edge. The use of clashing chord progressions, ambitious lyrics and atmospheric production touches helps lift the band above its contemporaries – for Younger, pushing ever forward is preferable to simply recycling “Aloha Steve & Danno” for the rest of his life. (Dig that free jazz piano solo in “Psych Nurse.”) But that doesn’t mean he and the rest of the band don’t know how to rock (furiously) and when (constantly) – every touch of folk rock, psychedelia and postpunk gets folded into riff-mongering songs like chocolate chips into pancakes. Guitars blaze, drums pound and Younger’s commanding voice grounds it all in righteous rockers like the snarling “These Reasons,” the moody “Daddy’s Calling,” the anthemic “Bonsoir á Vous” and the roaring “Animalisation.” Catchy, aggressive, textured and intelligent – Gloria is thinking man’s rock & roll that inspires mind and body alike.
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