Megaforce
2008
Colorado's Rose Hill have the sound of a band who know the pop hooks of more recent rock music, but their souls ultimately feed on guitar heavy classic rock. So what we ultimately receive is straight forward, blues soaked rock that bounces and plunges all over the place. It's not particularly involved, but it doesn't have to be when they have such a good handle on cranking at soaring, hook heavy tunes. There are a few moments between the cracks when you can hear that these guys are probably of an age where they were influenced some by the likes of the Black Crowes, Green Day and others yet the majority of the album shows their great love for Zeppelin, the Who and other late 60's/early 70's acts. The fuzzy, thick groove of "Trans Am" brings about thoughts of cruising on a summer evening with the radio blaring although at the moment it might be more affordable to just enjoy the song in your living room. The comfortable almost lazy smoothness of "My Light" manages to make the song seem like a familiar friend yet there is a definite air of freshness to it as well. Really there are not a whole lot of new ideas here, but there are a lot of likable and reliable formulas that make it rather easy to get into this album almost immediately. The smooth as silk vocals and the use of real honest to goodness finger-bending solos help to add to the depth of Rosehill Drive's overall sound. If there is a downside for this album it's just that it has come in a year where there are a number of other really good bands like Bigelf, Thieves and Liars, TAB the band and Shame Club who are also cranking out 70's inspired rock albums. So although very enjoyable, Rosehill Drive are not as unique as they might have been had they done this album say three or four years ago. Yet they have managed to create twelve songs of fairly, pure head boppin' rock and roll.
I might look into this, if for no other reason, because the album title is pretty funny.
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