BLUES PILLS – Holy Moly! (Limited 2-CD Mediabook) (2020)
Postponed for several months due Covid-19, BLUES PILLS finally will release their new album “Holy Moly!” this month. This Limited 2-CD Mediabook include as extra the ”Bliss EP”.
Under the layers of heavy psych blues-rock and Elin Larsson’s soulful and powerful voice, the core of Blues Pills has always been the restless search for change. During their break before the recording of this new album, Blues Pills has been through some kind of reincarnation, discovering new sounds and textures.
Sometimes, it’s not about where you are, but where you’re at. Even if, in the case of these Swedish retro-rockers, where you are is already rather covetable.
To record the follow-up to 2016’s magnificent ‘Lady In Gold’ – an album which took them to Number One in Germany – Larsson and her be-flared band headed to Närke, far out in the Swedish countryside, where they could freak out in (relative) peace, in their own analogue studio, with no distractions, recorded by guitarist Zack Anderson.
But as idyllic as this sounds, on ”Holy Moly!”, Blues Pills are actually miles and decades away from where it was created. This is actually the super-swinging late Sixties / early Seventies California, a sunny delight that invokes the golden age of classic rock / psychedelia, the Playboy Mansion party from Once Upon A Time In Hollywood.
There’s even a song called California that rivals Red Hot Chili Peppers for invoking their home state’s hot spirit.
What Blues Pills serve up, like Rival Sons before them, is a perfect transmission of warm rock’n’roll from a time gone by that effortlessly slinks along with natural swagger, without ever feeling studied.
The opening stomp of ‘Proud Woman’ and the fuzzy heft of ‘Low Road’ immediately open the door on a place where classic rock is full of soul, the riffs are from that sweet spot where the blues was getting faster and louder, and the best occasion in which to have a good time is all of the time.
As ever, it’s Elin’s incredible voice that gives ”Holy Moly!” so much of its charisma. Her vocals – in the raw but beautiful tradition of Janis Joplin – are incredible here, melodically high and gorgeous, with a rough edge that gives so much weight to the shaking ‘Rhythm In The Blood’, while on the softer, acoustic ”Wish I’d Known”, it’s a gentle breeze over the top.
Highly Recommended
CD 1:
01. Proud Woman
02. Low Road
03. Dreaming My Life Away
04. California
05. Rhythm In The Blood
06. Dust
07. Kiss My Past Goodbye
08. Wish I’d Known
09. Bye Bye Birdy
10. Song From A Mourning Dove
11. Longest Lasting Friend
CD 2 – Bliss EP:
01. Bliss
02. Astral Plane
03. Devil Man
04. Little Sun
Elin Larsson – Vocals
Zack Anderson – Guitars
Andre Kvarnstrom – Drums
Kristoffer Schander – Bass
Pre Order:
www.amazon.co.uk/Holy-Digibook-incl-Bonus-Bliss/dp/B086Y39HLR
