Album Review: The DeRellas - Something's Got To Give
Reviewed by Dan Barnes
The tragic passing of Sylvain Sylvain back in January was a reminder that even the legends get called home at some point and, although the Dolls were never the most prolific of recording acts, and it has been a decade since their last album, their influence is still being felt and, rightly, honoured to this day.
Home-grown rabble, The DeRellas’, fourth and latest album, Something’s Got to Give, comes out and reminds us all that the spirit of those early seventies nights in seedy New York clubs is alive and well and in the finest of forms.
Everything about Something’s Got to Give screams attitude: from the collage cover art, defaced by spray-painted pink graffiti; to the prevailing arrogance of the music, conjured from the dirtiest of riffs and mammoth hooks.
Listening to The DeRellas is like being transported to a place where having a good time is the only responsibility you have. In a world that seems to throw global geopolitics into every facet of life, it is so refreshing to listen to a straight-up collection of songs that are unashamedly made to kick-back to.
Yet this is no throwaway, bubble-gum, sleaze-pop. You won’t find any Cherry Pies or Unskinny Bops among the dozen tracks on offer. Instead, you get a band hitting the sweet spot between being locked into each other’s groove and loose enough to come across as belligerently anarchistic.
From the get-go, Don’t Tell Me What I Did Last Night is a version of Look What the Cat Dragged In, but brimming with a snotty punk chug and F.U. vocals. Emergency 2020 sits in a space somewhere between 70s New York and 80s Los Angeles and the fast-paced Inner-City Rock & Roll evokes the grimy streets of a big metropolis.
The whole record creates the feeling of being in a packed and sweaty club, jostling for a vantage point to see the band as the air is filled with smoke and the aroma of free-flowing booze. Something’s Got to Give is The DeRellas picking up the torch and running with it, a glorious statement of the high value of pure dumb excess.
Tracks like Sonic Detonator, Sweet Fatal Attraction and Highrise Supersize aren’t designed to have the lyrical complexity of a 2112 or a Stairway to Heaven. Great songs, certainly, but have you ever tried shot-gunning cans of lager to either of those? Well, save yourself the bother.
Sometimes music just needs to be fun, especially after the year and a half we’ve all just had, and The DeRellas’ new record is that in spades. Raw and snarling and filled with a Stooges-like guitar swagger and a You-Talkin’-to-Me? attitude, Something’s Got to Give is the album we all so desperately need right now.
