Reviews Suburban Rock 'n' Roll - 2004 - Rock TV
Suburban Rock 'N' Roll is the comeback album from Space. Having started out so spectacularly well with Spiders and Tin Planet, Space have since spent a painfully fallow period in the contractual doldrums. Now with a new record company, songwriter and head honcho Tommy Scott lets it all flood out with a collection that's high on humour and musical invention. Scott likes to fascinate and confound by mixing and matching genres and, as with his Liverpudlian forebear John Lennon, his interests stretch right back to the British music hall tradition. Thanks to his keen grasp of melody, this makes Suburban Rock 'N' Roll an intriguing listen. The opening title track, with its fat bass and Spanish strings backed by whistles, scratches, comedy voices and soaring sci-fi keyboards, has you thinking of Stan Ridgeway spoofing Chris Isaak. Then there's the catchy rush of "Zombies", the warped rock of "Hitch-Hiking", the distorted blues of "Pretty Suicide" and the cheesy 70s pop of "The English Language". Perhaps best of all are the sweet and wistful "Quiet Beach" and the menacing "Hell's Barbecue", where Scott whispers a taut tale of urban conservative paranoia. Space have lost none of their famed idiosyncrasies, and their odd take on a strange world is as perceptive and entertaining as ever. -- Dominic WillsOriginal Article available here
Source: Rock TV
