THE DAMN TRUTH – Now Or Nowhere (2021)
Produced by legendary, Grammy Award-winning producer Bob Rock (Aerosmith, Motley Crüe, Bon Jovi) at Bryan Adams’ The Warehouse Studio in Vancouver, Montreal female fronted hard rockers THE DAMN TRUTH are releasing their new album, ”Now Or Nowhere”.
With plenty of rock and roll swagger, ”Now Or Nowhere” navigates life, love and the challenges of the last year with the pandemic, with a powerhouse vocalist and downright killer band. They might be bohemian rock n’ roll hippies, but they sure can rock hard with bluesy vibe.
This one comes bursting out the speakers nicely before settling into a groove and rocking out, adding a wonderfully soul-touched vocal and some wonderfully toned thrusting guitars.
Indeed there’s a real retro Hard Rock feel to The Damn Truth’s music that makes you sit up and wonder why you’ve not heard of them previously.
You find yourself falling in love pretty early on – first the arena-sized Bluesy hard rock of ‘Tomorrow’ gets you singing along before the huge sounds of ‘Only Love’ (an instant classic) take on an almost Jefferson Airplane groove and drive (man those guitars!).
Not allowing you any respite ‘Lonely’ creeps in and wraps you up in its wonderful melodies which are punctuated with dark verses on the back of sweet stabs of guitar, before we descend into some real soulful vocals and hear what we thought all along – that frontwoman Lee La Baum really does have a magnificent voice.
Part of the charm certainly comes from the feel of the record which was largely recorded by Bob “live off the floor, in keeping with the band’s ‘70s rock roots“. It works. The other factor is that these are all beautifully crafted songs.
At the half was point comes the acoustic-led ‘Everything Fades’ which displays a wonderful vulnerability and is washed with wonderful ‘blue sky’ melodies; whilst the sinuous heavy groove of ‘The Fire’ is another wonderful burst of passionate vocals and simmer and sizzle guitars.
‘Look Innocent ‘ that follows is a cool as fuck, emotion dripping demi-ballad build on a bed of wailing guitars and a wonderful lyric that tips these guys into classic territory.
We draw closer to the end of what has been a monumental ride with the wonderful ‘Full on You’ – another with a real 70’s rock heart and another that doesn’t set a foot wrong. The album comes to a climax with the quietest song on the record, or so you’re tempted to think as Lee La lays down a gentle vocal against some light orchestration, but the guitars and the build are never far away and crash in to punctuate this one like waves, ‘Shot ‘Em’ is a powerful and moving way to leave us hanging.
What a truly wonderful band.
We think this has to be among our favourite albums of the year in this style/genre. This is glorious retro stuff.
Highly Recommended
01 – This is Who We Are Now
02 – Tomorrow
03 – Only Love
04 – Lonely
05 – Everything Fades
06 – The Fire
07 – Look Innocent
08 – Full on You
09 – Shot ‘Em
Lee-La Baum – Lead Vocals / Guitar / Tambourine
Tom Shemer – Guitar / Keyboards / Mandolin / Vocals
Py Letterlier – Bass Guitar / Tambourine / Vocals
Dave Traina – Drums / Vocals
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www.amazon.com/gp/product/B091DWWC2T
