There have been a series of duos that have come up with some excellent rock music, making big, loud sounds from all over the place – White Stripes, Black Keys, The Fiery Furnaces… Each of those coming up with a specific sound of their own, but always sounding more like a big band than a duo.
We can now add another such duo to that list. This time around, Linda Filippin (Vocals), and Michael Reynal (Guitars), the combo comes from Italy. They call themselves The Straddlerz, presenting us with their self-titled debut. So which way are they going?
As you might have guessed, The Straddlerz favor at least one streak of loud, brash rock. But unlike the various types of ’60s flavors of The White Stripes and The Black Keys, and the Captain Beefheart and The Fiery Furnaces style of avant-garde, The Straddlerz favor a more ‘conventional’ hard rock sounds of bands like The Guns and Roses, Van Halen and not forgetting the punkish attitude of L7.
But, there’s one important factor to consider here – you can play that ‘conventional’ hard rock well, with real energy and feel, or you can just simply go through the motions, piling riffs onto riffs. Luckily for The Straddlerz, and even more so for their listeners, they play their hard rock with both emotion and flair. They even kept switching various rhythm sections while recording the album just to get the right feel they were looking for. Slow-burning “Addiction” is exactly the track that exemplifies their sound. It starts out a bit easy and then turns into a hard rock/punk cross with ease.
This one will go down really well with all the hard rock fans out there, no problem.
