Title: Man Up
Artist: The Blue Van
Genre: Indie
Release Date: 26th February 2010
Label: Iceberg Records
Album Review
All I can say is after hearing this “Who let these crazy Danish guys form a band... because I want to buy him a drink.” This is easily the most surprising, original, weird and downright great album I've heard in a long time. Wow this is a cheerful opener in 'Be home soon'. Lively energetic and catchy, it's a perfect first track to the album followed closely by the very funky 'Man up' real Huggy Bear music, with a heavy bluesy rock feel to it that you can't stop tapping your feet to and a flaming bass line. Awesome! 'Silly boy' is more traditional rock in feel and I think I might be about to have an overdose of jolly which is not really assuaged by 'There goes my love' but this is a more tolerable bluesy rollick into joy so I think I'm safe, in fact it's a damned fine track.
'Lay me down and die' is much quieter and maudlin with a really nice lyric and I'm thus far really happy with this album as these guys march entirely to the beat of their own drum and don't make the slightest effort to conform to anyone else's idea of what a band should be. 'The socialite' is a solid, quirky track that for some reason reminds me of 'Lazing on a sunny afternoon' in flavour. 'In love with myself' has a really class intro that sounds as if Jerry Lee Lewis has escaped playing piano and has starting playing guitar for them. It's a broad and infectious track which also smacks of the KAISER CHIEFS (yes really). 'Out of control' lives up to its name, and I'm sure there's a Hammond Organ in there somewhere just for the hell of it presumably?
'True' returns to the more traditional style of things but is a good track none the less, whilst 'I'm a man' has more of the escaped Jerry Lee Lewis going on and is hard and heavy traditional rock and roll in style. It's an awesome track, raw and guttural and lovely in its traddy unpretentiousness. 'Stop thinking of yourself' is more hefty rock, catchy and retro in feel and very, very good. 'Trees that resemble' is just utterly nuts, but brilliantly so, showing for the first time properly exactly how good the vocalist is, and he is. Oh no it's the end! That was first thought when the meteoric 'Put my name in the sand' began, and what an end, it soars and dips and rips along ending a thoroughly great album. This style of music is nowhere near to my usual taste but this was utterly superb from beginning to end and they've now got a huge fan. RECOMMENDED!
Tracklist
01. Be Home Soon
02. Man Up
03. Silly Boy
04. There Goes My Love
05. Lay Me Down and Die
06. The Socialite
07. In Love With Myself
08. Out Of Control
09. True
10. I'm A Man
11. Stop Thinking of Yourself
12. Trees That Resemble
13. Put My Name in the Sand
Line-up
Steffen Westmark
Søren Oakes Christensen
Allan Villadsen
Per Jørgensen
Website
http://www.thebluevan.com/ / http://www.myspace.com/thebluevan
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 9
Sound: 9
Extras:-
Total: 9 / 10
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