Friday, December 10, 2021

The Romantics - Made in Detroit ep (1993, Westbound)

After all of last week's Chanukah hysterics I decided to take a break for about a week, and unfortunately in that interim I didn't get around to prepping much for you - but I do have this.  I'm not sure how much demand there was for a fresh Romantics record in the mid-90s, but apparently this five song salvo from '93 is fetching collector's prices nowadays.  Hmmm.  Anyway, this one was a painfully LOUD departure from their eighties Nemperor Records fare, with the boys bent on laying to waste the last functioning vestiges of your eardrums.  Granted, it's roughly a mere seventeen minutes all told, but Made in Detroit is the Romantics uncharacteristic excursion into sheer aggression with everything bleeding into the red.  More pub rock than power pop this time around, the band's cheeseburger and milkshake formula is firmly intact, with a slick yet ballsy-as-all-get-out sheen that finds the quartet striving to recapture a younger halcyon era they never possessed to begin with. Frankly, I'm not sure why they're straining themselves to the extent they are here, or moreover who in the hell they intend to impress. Certainly not kids bopping to Stone Temple Pilots  ...Detroit's full-throttle modus operandi borders on the obnoxious, but it sports more torque than a Mustang, and would suitably function as part of the soundtrack were you to opt for a spin in one circa the Clinton-era. Detachable faceplates anyone? 

01. You and Your Folks
02. Love it Up
03. I Wanna Know
04. Runaway
05. Leave Her Alone

Hear

1 comment:

Failsafe said...

You weren't kidding about loud.
Sounds a lot like early 80s Hoodoo Gurus.