Viva DeConsini – Rock & Roll Lover (Music Review)
By Andrew Gable • Sep 3rd, 2010 • Category: Categories, Indie Rock, Music Genres, ReviewsViva DeConsini
Rock & Roll Lover
Self-Released
Rating: 3 out of 5
Links:
Viva’s Homepage: http://www.vivamusic.info/live/
Viva on MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/vivadeconcini
Viva DeConcini and her back up band released Rock & Roll Lover in mid-July.
Rock & Roll Lover is good, girl-fronted, girly-centric fun rock and roll. Many tasty ingredients make their way into this gumbo of a record. The title track is a bouncy, funky, danceable song that should appeal to the rockabilly kids in the crowd, as should “Go-Go Boots,” and her instrumental cover of Carole King’s/ Aretha Franklin’s “Natural Woman.”
DeConcini’s vocals are skilled and show a plethora of influences. She goes from fun and flirty to slow and serious in the span of the record. Her voice seems better suited for the upbeat tracks more than the solemn track “Emily.”
The strings are mainly well-crafted blues and rock guitar with some late 60s Brit-psyche. Nothing about the bass and drums stand out too much; the focus stays on Viva’s voice, the guitars and horns. Horns? Yes! Viva employed the services of a full horn section in this her release, and apparently takes a 4-piece with her on tour.
Rock and Roll Lover is over all a good record, a solid record. It is not, however, a fascinating listen. I have always had the opinion that when a musical outfit plays a little bit of everything on a single record (for this record, it would be a psychedelic rock song, a few upbeat rockabilly-new swing songs, and an instrumental Motown cover, etc), they prove themselves to be a great studio band. They do not prove themselves to be a good independent band with their own sound.
Where the band may lack in a sound that they own, they make up for in playing decent songs. Overall, Rock & Roll Lover is a fun record to relax to and have as background music, or to see at a festival or show; not a band to make a point of seeing based on the contents of this record alone.
RIYL: Stray Cats, Motown records, Ani DiFranco, any alternative-Grrrl music, David Bowie, neo swing music.
Andrew Gable is a 30-something journalism student in Cincinnati, Ohio. He has played in a few local bands and is an avid collector of music. Outside of sharing his opinion with many people who don’t ask for it, he can be found drawing, skateboarding, and drinking copious amounts of coffee at local coffee establishments.
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