If you want to know the difference between rock music and rock and roll, the latest one from Sons of Silver is a good example of the difference between the two camps. Rock music, today’s rock music at least, seems big and earnest and heavy and monolithic. You can almost hear the grunting, the sweating, the sound of it scraping across the musical landscape as it is being pulled towards the listener. Rock and roll music swings and grooves, it dances more deftly and bounces with infectious buoyancy. “Tell Me This,” by this definition, is definitely in the latter category.
But that isn’t to say that it doesn’t do all of that without the requisite punch and power; it does, but it is the poise and purpose that it also throws into the mix that keeps it light on its feet. It is music that boogies rather than rocks; it has swagger and attitude rather than being full of itself and in love with its own image, which, I’m afraid, is how most music made in the heavier realms seems to me to be these days. Well, all those positive elements that I have just waxed lyrical about, all those plus points and inherently rock and roll moves, are precisely what goes into the mix of this latest single from the band.
In short, if you are looking for some foot-on-the-monitor, heads down, no-nonsense, rock and roll, then Sons of Silver should be your general direction of travel, and “Tell Me This,” in particular, is the perfect final destination. Until they release the next one, I suspect.
