Album Review: "Real Control" - Moneybrother

Last weekend I had my usual weekly ritual of watching TV4's "Sommarkrysset" on the internet. A rather enjoyable show it was too, with Moneybrother and E.M.D. among last week's musical guests. Suddenly it struck me that I had never posted my reviews of their most recent albums due to other commitments at the times of their release, so let's get this sorted right now :)

There's something reassuring about another release by Anders Wendin and his merry men, and even major line-up changes haven't changed his signature sound, which to these ears always sounded like a cross between Bruce Springsteen, The Clash and some other post-punk bands, whilst always retaining his own distinctive style.

First single "Born Under A Bad Sign" opens the album with its singalong chorus. You wouldn't expect a song with a title like "We Die Only Once (For Such A Long Time)" to be a cheery little reggae-flavoured foot-tapper, but amazingly it is.

"6 am" (the song he performed on last week's "Sommarkrysset" has a very disjointed 3-songs-in-1 approach, but despite this it seems to work and it has a strong chorus. "Never Ever (I've Been Kissed)" seems to channel Wendin's inner Roy Orbison, if the vocals are anything to go by. Anders Wendin mainly sticks with his usual croaky, gruff Springsteen-style vocals on most of the songs, but "Not That Old" is very surprising with its falsetto vocals, well as near to falsetto as you're likely to get from Mr Wendin!!

"Just Another Part Of Me That Breaks Down": Long song title - check. Stop-start musical-energy - check.

The pace slows down for a big ol' croaky ballad "Young Faithful Love" but then we're soon back at home in Moneybrother's high-speed territory. "Here Comes The Vain Again" has a driving beat whilst "Feel Like Hurting Somebody" seems to mix soul and punk and strangely enough reminds me of early Dexy's Midnight Runners (!)

There is nothing on here as classic as, say, "Reconsider Me" or "...Joanna" or even "Just Another Summer", but many of the tracks stand up to repeated listening as it doesn't take long for them to eat their way into your musical brain :)

Six years on from his debut album, Anders Wendin continues to make the music he wants to make, timeless good old fashioned rock n' roll, filled with excitement and urgency. He makes no concession to here-today-gone-tomorrow musical fashions or trends, and we should be eternally grateful to him for that alone. If "Real Control" is more of the same, then that's just fine by me.