Rocket 88 & The Rockettes – Chapter 1&2/Dreams Of Country Living
Self-Release – 2022/2024
11 tracks; 44 minutes/10 tracks; 36 minutes
This Swedish band started out in 1998 as a quartet playing classic blues like Howling Wolf. Over the years the members have changed and female singers came on board (hence the Rockettes tag) and the band decided to create original material rather than be a covers band. The current line-up of the band is Jim Oman on guitar, Béatrice Oman and Anna Arespang share the lead vocals, Klas Gunnerfeldt also sings and plays guitar, Lars ‘Lee’ Eriksson is on bass and Tobias Grahn on drums. All the songs are original, everyone contributing apart from drummer Tobias, with two outside contributions from Benny Arvesen and Patrick Omalm.
Chapter 1&2 starts with a riff that recalls Cream’s version of “Crossroads”, Béatrice singing of the frustrations that you encounter “Every Day”, a strong vocal performance to open the album. Anna and Béatrice tend to lead on the songs that they wrote, but there is not a great deal of actual blues here, several of the songs being more in a light rock style, even branching into one song in French, “Blues Pour Mon Père that has more of a country feel to it (despite the title!). “Still I Sing The Blues” is stripped-back with Anna’s vocals about her chosen profession backed by solo electric guitar work, the rest of the band sitting this one out. As the title suggests, “Born Before A War” deals with the horrors of war, seen through the eyes of a child, lyrically impressive but a long way from the blues. “Handyman” adopts a country style with some pleasant guitar exchanges while “Second Coming Of Rocket 88 & The Rockettes” celebrates the rebirth of the band, complete with some slide work over a chugging rhythm.
Whilst there were a few blues influences present on the 2022 album, there is very little to discern on the newer release. The title track “Dreams Of Country Living” perhaps shows the direction of travel of the band, a pleasant country rock tune with neat acoustic guitar exchanges and a good singalong chorus, as is “Something To Do With You”; the weeping guitars of “No Regrets” also closes the album in a country vein. Elsewhere the band offers ringing guitars that recall Tom Petty on “Back Off” and “I Smell Envy”, a chugging “Bad Manners” and a moving song about a child who never knew his father, “Grandma’s Boy”. The closest we get to the band’s roots in the blues is the snarling slide of “Mind The Gap”.
This is a well recorded pair of albums, presented beautifully with full lyric sheets and information on band members and song writers. Not sure why it was submitted to a blues magazine for review, but those whose musical tastes span a wider range of styles may well find something to like here.
