Trollheart

Cowboy Prostitutes --- Cowboy Prostitutes --- 2004 (Retrospect)
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Oh, you just have to love the name! Now this album could be total crap, but I simply can't resist a band who call themselves Cowboy Prostitutes, and typically I can find little or no pertinent information on them. I absolutely HATE Facebook and MySpace pages, but at least when I was led to theirs I did get one piece of information: well, two, if you include the fact that they're still recording: they apparently hail from Sweden. Would not have figured that one out, no. Also, every --- admittedly tiny --- entry I come across on them seems to concern their last (at least, I assume it's their last, as in, most recent) album, 2010's “Swingin' on the fences”, but this is their debut --- again, I don't know but I have to assume, both from the title and the year --- so there's going to be very little I can tell you about it.

So, as they say, let's see if the music can do the talking.

Opening with a “Yee-hah!” and a blasting guitar, a rockin' rhythm and a singer who sounds like he wants to be Axl Rose, it's a good start. “Blood on your blade” has all the prerequistes: it's fast, loud, upbeat and fun, although I have to say the vocals are very far down in the mix, as I can't believe anyone would have that weak a voice and be a singer in a band, but it's really hard to hear Luca Isabelle, who also plays bass, but guitarists Tobbe Johansson and the enigmatically-named Lao make up for that. Now there are keyboards here too --- I can hear them --- but no credit so I can't tell you who's playing.

“Make a name for yourself” has a Rolling Stones vibe to it, with hard, sharp guitar and growled vocals which, it has to be said, can now be heard much more clearly and loudly: definitely must have been a fault with the production, as I thought. There's a piano going there too, giving the music a sort of hard-rock-country-punk feel, if such a thing can exist. Kind of reminds me of a harder, faster Quireboys or Poison on speed, maybe Bonfire. Certainly has me moving, that's for sure! Just a little slower and restrained --- though not much! --- “Wasted” is another hard rocker, but I'm sorry to say that the production problems resurface here, and although Isabelle (come on, let's be fair to the guy: we'll refer to him as Luca, or he'll end up with gender identity problems, which is something you definitely don't want to have to deal with in this sphere!) shouts and roars it's all he can do to be heard above the music. I don't think either that it's that the guitars or drums, or even his own bass are too turned up in the mix, just that whoever's producing this album seems not to know how to push vocals to the front. How can you not know that? Still, as information is so sketchy (read, almost non-existent!) on this album I can't identify the culprit.

“Joy” keeps the power up, and as the guitars riff in the start I can at least hear Luca now, whether that will remain the case once they let loose is another thing. Well, as it gets going, the song seems to be a somewhat more laidback one, almost a ballad perhaps for the Cowboy Prostitutes way of singing. Yes, in fairness, Luca's vocals are keeping up with the music, and there's some really nice organ in there too: pity there's no data on who's behind the keyboard. This is quite commercial --- compared to their other tracks --- and probably would have made a good single. Whether or not it was I can't say. Oh, Wikipedia! You let me down!

Dammit, I can't even tell you who's writing the songs, and some of them are really good. I hate it when I have this dearth of information on a band, or an album, or both, but as I hoped at the beginning of this review, the music is filling in the gaps and telling its own story, and I guess in the end that's the most important part of any review. You can have all the bumpf in the world, but if the music sucks then what is the point? Luckily, as I may already have intimated, the music of Cowboy Prostitutes does not suck, and “Welcome back” keeps up the quality with another fast rocker with some great hooks, more guitar-centric than previous songs, and again you can hear Luca fine this time. For a guy from Sweden he certainly sounds like he was reared in the Deep South!

Some great energy and some really blazing guitar in “The damned”, then there's a honky-tony/bar-room feel to “Television”, with a great guitar riff and some well-placed harmonica, which again I can't credit sadly. Some very good organ keeping the melody together also, then “Alive'n'well” has a definite Hendrix vibe to it, but sad to say Luca's vocals are again dropping off the edge of a cliff: you can hear him, but it's like he's standing at the back of the studio without a microphone. Still, some great piano rollicking along on this tune: I'm not sure these guys even know there is such a thing as a slow song! Interesting guitar break and then a soaraway, frenetic solo as the song powers across the finish line.

Oh wait, what's this? Lonely piano notes? Could this be a ballad, a real ballad? Revving up guitar in a kind of Iron Maiden vein would tend to give the lie to that, and indeed the soft and acoustic opening turns out to be just the intro to another rocker which, although not quite as frantic and headbanging as previous examples of Cowboy Prostitutes' craft, is nowhere near a ballad. “Ghost of Venice” is one of the more melodic of their songs, however, and it's pretty darn good. The piano that introduced the song continues on throughout, keeping a nice line as it goes along, even getting a chance to play a solo, and extremely effective it is too, but the song never slows down again, not until the very last bars, and then we're into the closer.

Now with a title of “Over the top”, and opening with the sound of a motorcycle engine revving, it seems clear this is not going to be the much-looked-for ballad, and indeed it proves not to be. Another fast rocker, with lots of shouting and chanting, air-punching, fist-clenching, the sort of song Saxon and Motorhead built their careers on lyrically, with a nod perhaps to Steppenwolf. For this last song Luca struggles to be heard, and for the most part he manages it, but it has to be said that it's no credit to the efforts of the producer, who is either really incompetent or lazy, or just doesn't like our poor old vocalist! Pity, as Luca Isabelle seems to have a really strong and distinctive voice that really suits this kind of music.

A good closer to a good album. I wouldn't be rushing out to buy the rest of Cowboy Prostitutes' catalogue, (assuming I could find it!), but for an album you throw on when you just want to let your hair down (not in my case!) and just party, forget your troubles and not worry too much about musical intricacies, deep lyrics or avant-garde styles, these cowboys from Sweden will certainly fit the bill. Fun with a capital F! Now, if they can only sort out that production problem...

TRACKLISTING

1. Blood on your blade
2. Make a name for yourself
3. Wasted
4. Joy
5. Welcome back
6. The damned
7. Television
8. Alive'n'well
9. Ghost of Venice
10. Over the top

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