Alchemical glam? That’s a thing, right? Well, it certainly is now. “Gold,” the new one from The Manimals is what might have happened if alchemists like Dr John Dee had swapped his efforts to turn base metals into gold and instead tried to turn glam rock into gold records, if he had quit the pursuit of the elixiar of life and just put his disco dancing trousers and stack heels and experienced life.
Paying homage to the twin deities of the glam pantheon, Bowie and Bolan, “Gold” is a slice of staccato grooved brilliance, a blend of lush guitar riffs and infectious beats, fist-in-the-air anthemics and platform-booted, foot-on-the-monitor energy. music that looks you straight in the eye and dares you not to dance.
The smart thing about The Manimals is that they understand that whilst the likes of Bolan were all about in-your-face, instantaneous energy (boy, I’m getting through a lot of hyphens), Bowie brought the smarts to the genre. It is between the big and the bold, the lyrical and literate, the excessive and the eloquent, that they pitch themselves.
And if they can deliver this much fun on record, imagine what experiencing them live would be like, a band that blends influences as fun and diverse as those aforementioned glam icons, plus horror movies and drag queens, myths and psychedelia, and everything in between.
Remember when rock music used to be fun and escapist, when it wasn’t about beardy guys in big shorts grinding out the sort of riffs that could be used to quarry granite, or cooler-than-thou indie kids who still think that sounding like Oasis is a neat idea? Well, if you do, “Gold” in particular and The Manimals in general are your ticket back to such a time.
Does anyone know where I put my face glitter and feather boa?
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