Reuben Archer’s PERSONAL SIN – Petrolhead (2017)
Fronted by STAMPEDE frontman Reuben Archer, “Petrolhead” is the brand new album by his side band PERSONAL SIN. With song titles such as ‘No Gasoline’ ”My Limousine’, ‘Oil and Water’ or ‘Grand Theft Auto’ you can easily guess what this album is all about: love for cars / bikes, life on the road, and rock n’ roll music.
Produced by Archer and co-writer and guitarist Rob Wolverson, the album features 11 auto-themed bluesy hard rock, some with a funky feeling which pay homage to one of the oldest and best-loved marriages in British & American music culture – that between rock ‘n’ roll and fast cars.
A self-confessed lifelong ‘petrolhead’, Reuben says of the concept: “Consider this album my tribute to what may become a bygone age; a chance to revel in the splendor of the sound of a V8 engine; that old romantic vision captured so intoxicatingly back in the 50s and 60s by pioneering R&B stalwarts such as Chuck Berry’s ‘No Particular Place To Go’ and Wilson Pickett’s ‘Mustang Sally’, to name but a few!”
It is to Reuben Archer’s PERSONAL SIN that the confession of love must be allowed to become an open secret, which the Petrolhead has always been there in one form or another in the guise of music.
The open road of Britain might not seem too cosy, too packed with the want away driver and far less miles available in which to stroke the engine in which to understand why it a dream relationship for some; but transport that adoration across the Atlantic Ocean and look at the open highway, then the argument becomes one of automobile class, of the stories that permeate the skin of the leather seat and the roar between the cities visited.
The former LAUTREC, WILDHORSES and LIONHEART vocalist has once again brought to mind a sense of purpose to the Rock environment, a type of manual for the appreciation of the life that is that symbolic with the post war generation, the chance to own something that would be part of your dreams, your aspiration and be there, even if you could not afford to fill the beast up, when all around is flat and the battery spent.
The noise of the turning of the key is enough to make songs such as ‘No Gasoline’, the poignant ‘Last Chance Station’, ‘Good Times Rolled Away’, ‘Stone Cold Turkey’ and ‘Ballad of Junior Johnson’ all leave their tire marks over the listener’s conscious, the rubber ready, the gasoline pumped and the story of the uncharted road ahead, for the “Petrolhead”, for the Rock lover, there is no better place to be and with no finer confession as a travelling companion.
Fun and entertaining album with a true classic Hard / Rock N’ Roll spirit.
01. No Gasoline
02. My Limousine
03. Last Chance
04. White Knuckle Ride
05. Oil and Water
06. Grand Theft Auto
07. Good Times Rolled Away
08. Long Time Running
09. Stonecold Turkey
10. Ballad of Junior Johnson
11. Caught in the Rain
Reuben Archer (vocals)
Rob Wolverson (guitars / production)
Chris Clowsley (guitars)
Neil Ablard (drums)
Jim Cooper (bass)
Linda Kelsey-Foster (keyboards)
Mat Taylor (saxophone)
Rebecca Downes (backing vocals)
BUY IT !
reubenarcherrocks.com/product/petrolhead-cd-edition/
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