If rock n’ roll is on the way out, then Bleech certainly didn’t receive the memo. For anyone who is starting to doubt whether that next Queens Of The Stone Age album is ever going to happen, or whether Feeder have completely lost all song-writing capability, or for anyone who actually liked The Arctic Monkeys’ third album, pay a warm welcome to the up-and-coming London based three-piece.
'Nude' is the band’s debut album and weighing in at a modest 10 tracks long, all at around the three minute mark, it quite refreshingly captures the vibe of the 1970s being depicted and described by Lydon and Siouxsie in the BBC’s new documentary Punk Britannia. There’s a lot of down tuned and chunky sounding riffs to be discovered that vaguely feels like a more energetic version of Soundgarden, but you can hear all manner of grunge influences here too. The lead guitars take on more of a Pixies-esque indie friendly sensibility while the beats are held together with some steady work with the sticks.
It’s all a firm base for some solid pop rock that is ultimately characterised by the, at times, crooning, sometimes a little haughty sounding but mostly passionate and tuneful vocals of Jen O’Neill. She has a knack for putting a good chorus together too, demonstrated convincingly on tracks like 'Holiday', 'Mondays' and 'Weirdo'. The melancholy acoustic and violin textures of 'Flowerhands' at the half-way mark, followed by the more mosh-able and angst driven 'I Wanna Be Me' provides some variety to the album experience, a just in time to prevent the record from feeling too samey as well.
In this day and age, a debut album can mean either all or very little in terms of deciding a band’s future. Too much premature media hype can kill a band in its tracks before it’s too late in some cases, i.e. Viva Brother, but if a band are left to find their own feet without looming outside pressure, they can enjoy their own gradual rise to success record by record. Bleech, to me, sound like a band with a lot of experiences to be enjoyed before they release a killer second or third album. For now though, 'Nude' shows ample promise of their song writing talents. It’s nothing ground-breaking but it certainly offers a fun 30 minutes for your average rock fan.
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'Nude' is the band’s debut album and weighing in at a modest 10 tracks long, all at around the three minute mark, it quite refreshingly captures the vibe of the 1970s being depicted and described by Lydon and Siouxsie in the BBC’s new documentary Punk Britannia. There’s a lot of down tuned and chunky sounding riffs to be discovered that vaguely feels like a more energetic version of Soundgarden, but you can hear all manner of grunge influences here too. The lead guitars take on more of a Pixies-esque indie friendly sensibility while the beats are held together with some steady work with the sticks.
