 
|
THE DETROIT COBRAS
Baby (Rough Trade)
Reviewed by Adam Blake
OK, so you know I'm biased. But what the hell, it's just so great to have some new Cobras to listen to. This 3rd album is just a continuation of the first two in that it's 13 tracks long and is all over in less than 32 minutes. It's all covers except for one song, which might as well be a cover.
The Cobras aren't exactly prolific - this is only their 3rd album in seven years - but when they hit the spot your heart tells you that they are the best rock'n'roll band in the world (the only rock'n'roll band in the world?) and that the wait has been worth it. Here, they really do the thing on Billie Jean Horton's "Just Can't Please You" which has a groove and a riff and a vocal straight from God (or the Devil, depending on your point of view). It's completely impossible to keep still while it's playing and when it's finished you have to play it again. That one occupied me exclusively for some time but eventually I noticed that "Now You're Gone" has a minor key groove not given a proper airing for about 40 years and the days of The Beatles' "Not A Second Time," or The Searchers' attempts at Jackie DeShannon songs. Drummer Kenny Tudrick updates the twist rhythm like a true mythological craftsman and Rachel Nagy's vocals have never sounded better. Elsewhere, "Slipping Around" is a cool opener, with some nice East Coast harmonies, and "I Wanna Holler (But The Town's Too Small)" is a bit of an epic in the swamp rock mode. An odd choice is Bert Russell's "Baby Let Me Hold Your Hand" - at first I hoped it would be the Professor Longhair tune but it's the same one that The Animals did and that Bob Dylan stole for "Baby Let Me Follow You Down." It shows off the Cobras' increasingly confident backing vocals, and the grain of Rachel's voice on the intro is sublime. Steve Cropper's "Weak Spot" is indeed a weak spot, and the original "Hot Dog" is fun but hardly exceptional. "Everybody's Going Wild" sounds like an out-take from "Life, Love and Leaving" but that's OK, especially the yodeling... Allen Toussaint's "Mean Man" is more ambitious with its New Orleans funk lurch and 60s pop chords in the bridge - the Cobras sound like they don't quite know what to make of such dangerous revisionism but Rachel holds it together and it ends up being one of the stand-out tracks. Naomi Neville's "It's Raining" is this album's ballad, and only a heart of stone could remain unmoved. Maybe one day the Cobras will do a whole album of ballads like this and we will never again have to worry about what to play when we're maudlin drunk and alone at 3am.
What else? "The Real Thing" rocks like a mother. Bobby Womack's "Baby Help Me" is a good example of how the Cobras serve up classic soul, but by their standards it's a filler. Over here in the UK, "Cha Cha Twist" - the monster opener of the first album - was used recently in a Coke Cola ad, so the Cobras have tried to capitalize on this by re-recording and putting out the new version as a single. It's nice but they needn't have bothered: it's louder but no better than the old version.
Production (by the band) and engineering is spot-on. Sounds marginally better than the first two but they sounded just fine to me, so this is just more of the same with a slightly higher quality of fairy dust sprinkled over. The playing is spot-on throughout and Rachel's vocals sound fantastic. Any suggestions that she was losing it are hereby completely rescinded. If you like real rock'n'roll then this is far and away the year's most essential purchase; if you don't, well, I'm sorry I can't help you. Word to the wise: Play track 10 ("Just Can't Please You") first. Loud. Ask yourself: When did you last hear a better slice of the real stuff? Ain't cha glad this stuff exists? As for me, I'm gettin' down on my knees right now...
© 2004 - WRITER