JAILBIRDS – The Great Escape (2019)
Originally hailing from Sydney, Axel and Jay McDonald, the former a hot guitar player with the voice of a rock veteran, the later a tub thumping maniac, landed in Dublin, Ireland, a few years back and hooked up with a couple of locals, Ed Orr, who plays a mean axe and Jamie Trimble, a four string god of thunder, to form JAILBIRDS.
“The Great Escape” is their debut album, to file under Classic Rock with attitude where the likes of early Aerosmith, Rose Tatoo, and even ZZ Top come to mind. Oh, and add to that a bit of Celtic Thin Lizzy vibe.
One of my favs from this debut album is ‘Nothing Good Lasts Forever’, with a distinctive riff and the rough ‘n ready vocals of McDonald. One of the classic rock songs of the year in my book.
Elsewhere we have a little Aerosmith vibe on ‘Shadow Of Love’, whilst ‘The Pilot’ fair cracks along and like the other songs, not only features a smoking guitar solo, but harmony vocals on the choruses, great stuff.
There is a brilliant catchiness about ‘Loose Cannon’ and harmonies that deserve a hit single – not to mention a hook that goes “I am a little crazy, but you know I am kinda sweet”, as if to demonstrate they aren’t quite the bad boys of rock n roll.
‘Thrill Of The Chase’ is so gleeful that it just seems to happy to be out of the house. This is why you travel around the world – and it is an anthem to themselves. “There’s a road where I can find my way to the top with my brotherly crew” sings McDonald.
‘Underdog’ furthers the idea that they are on a crusade, with a kind of blues stoicism that may well be up for a scrap in the back alleys if it had to get down and dirty.
‘Fight Or Flight’ not only wraps up a short and sweet record (if you have got eight great songs then why pad it out?) it does so with the air of something that if you see them at a festival this summer, you’d be texting your mates to tell them you’d seen something that was going places.
Jailbirds look set to have a good future ahead if they can land a few choice support slots, as judging by this album they have a powerful set of Classic Rock songs crying out to be performed live.
Highly Recommended
01. The Great Escape
02. Loose Cannon
03. Nothing Good Lasts Forever
04. Shadow of Love
05. Thrill of the Chase
06. Underdog
07. Fight or Flight
08. The Pilot
Axel McDonald – Vocals, Guitars
Ed Orr – Guiatrs
Jamie Trimble – Bass
Jay McDonald – Drums
Pre Order:
www.amazon.co.uk/Great-Escape-Jailbirds/dp/B07R63S224
