CRUSH – Jinxed (2017)
Coming out of nowhere (well, in fact they are based out of Portland, Oregon) “Jinxed” is an expected, highly enjoyable release by CRUSH. Combining early Eddie Van Halen approved riffs and vocals akin the underrated Whitfield Crane (Ugly Kid Joe), “Jinxed” is plenty of hooks in the best ’80s fashion.
Seems the 4-piece has a vast experience and has performed hundreds of shows in the US NorthWest area & Canada doing covers of classic songs ranging from Journey and Toto to Dokken or Dio, and mixing in the middle their own compositions.
And you can hear Crush have honed their chops as despite its indie, self-managed production, “Jinxed” sounds fabulous.
All starts with the guitar intro of ‘Someday’ bringing to mind Van Halen circa 1980, then the vocals kick in and soon the chorus gets you hooked.
After that rocking beginning, there’s title track ‘Jinxed’ and this pure Van Halen not only due to the guitar licks, but also the pumping bass and drum fills style. Not a copy-cat anyway, as the vocals, as said, recall Ugly Kid Joe and there’s some Lynch Mob on it as well.
‘Mystery’ turn things harder, late ’80s US hard rock in fact, with its punchy verses and very Dokken-like choruses. The guitar solo is on fire, simple yet very melodic. Great one.
‘Never Told You’ is more melodic hard rock oriented with a contagious sweet melody and nice harmony vocals, ‘In Time’ is driven by a broken riff though the verses are very melodic (some White Lion here), then ‘Streets’ adds a cool percussion touch to its straight ’80s American hard rock foundation.
Indie, almost with zero promotion, Crush’s “Jinxed” certainly deserved to be featured here.
It’s a very professional recording and we’re talking about seasoned musicians, while the songs… the songs have ‘that’ special ’80s atmosphere – I mean, that analog sound and liveness – so hard to replicate nowadays in this pro-tools era.
Love it.
Highly Recommended
You’ve seen it first here, at 0dayrox
01 – Someday
02 – Jinxed
03 – Mystery
04 – Never Told You
05 – In Time
06 – Streets
Leo Curry – Lead Vocals
Troy Phipps – Bass, Vocals
Clay Harn – Guitar, Vocals
Dan Bowers – Drums, Vocals
BUY IT !
www.cdbaby.com/cd/crush112
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