Red Wanting Blue "These Magnificent Miles"

Fanatic Records 2010

Welcome to planet cliché.

• Red Wanting Blue are one of those everyman blue collar bands that never seem to make too much sense outside of the States. This re-released album finds them tackling the ultimate rock and roll cliché – life on the road. Now it is an open secret that life on the road consists of 22 hours of tedium punctuated with the two hours of performing, and several bands have tackled this subject and ultimately failed. So the question remains, can song-writer Scott Terry succeed where others have already failed.

• Opener, ‘Gravity (A Spaceman’s Song) sets the tone with immortal lyrics such as, ‘I would be a spaceman for you’, and, ‘you eclipse me with your face’. Yes, I’m afraid this album is a lyrical disaster zone.

  Second song ‘You are my Las Vegas’ maintains the standard with the turgid couplet, "You are my Las Vegas, and I don’t know what I’d do without you". It would be fair to say that, as a lyricist, Scott Terry is a cliché ridden cheese monkey of the highest order. However, if the listener can get past the obvious defect already highlighted, 'These Magnificent Miles’ is a fist pumping album of American anthems that does hold its attractions.

  Ultimately, Red Wanting Blue are also-rans in a massively over crowded field. At the end of the day if earnest blue collar rock lights your fire, there may well be the odd moment here for you.