Mama Kin - In The City (3/5)

01. Badge And A Gun 3:40 02. In The City 3:10 03. You Belong To Me 4:06 04. Mrs. Operator 3:12 05. Higher & Higher 4:53 06. Too Much 3:34 07. Fortune And Fame 3:00 08. Superman 4:32 09. You 3:20 10. Champagne, Chicks & Rock n’ Roll 2:28

‘Fuck me, not another band covered in tattoos.’
- Christopher Persuad-Jagdhar, The Wildhearts

Originality seems to be something of a problem in music these days; regardless of which genre a band are considered to be a part of, more often than not there will be older acts with whom they share similarities. This is largely true of the recent wave of Swedish rock och roll seen on Ragnarok of late, but is it true of Mama Kin?

Named after a track on Aerosmith’s first album, they play soulful melodic rock. The album starts with a police siren (like Guns N’ Roses’ ‘Appetite For Destruction’) and goes on to paint a sleazy picture of the rock ‘n’ roll city of… erm, Karlstad (like Guns N’ Roses’ ‘Appetite For Destruction’). The band’s personnel have a cool glam image (like Guns N’ Roses’ ‘Appetite For Destruction’). However, it sounds very little like Guns N’ Roses’ ‘Appetite For Destruction’, and to be fair, it would be extremely difficult for a band to live up to such a seminal work - but hey, no one said they were trying to, and who says that unoriginality strictly has to be a bad thing?

One really would be forgiven for thinking Kiss’ Paul Stanley is the vocalist for this album; the actual singer, known simply as Ward, sounds remarkably like him. His heartfelt rage comes across on opener ‘Badge And A Gun’, a tale of the deception of undercover cops. ‘You Belong To Me’ kicks off with the line of ‘Can’t make up my mind pretty baby, ’cause you’re only seventeen’ and one can’t help but think ‘Oh man, here we go…’. But the track is vindicated by one of those gorgeous life-affirming choruses and a jagged guitar riff that AC/DC would be proud of. ‘Mrs. Operator’ is similarly suspect; a lust-fuelled ode to a female telephone operator… unless it’s tongue-in-cheek, or she works for one of those lines that quickly drain a lonely man’s bank account, it seems pretty stupid and lacks the air of truthful admission found in other ‘telephone songs’ - Faster Pussycat’s ‘Bathroom Wall’ or Tommy Tutone’s ‘867-5309/Jenny’ for instance.

By the time the record gets to ‘Higher & Higher’ and ‘Too Much’, the Kiss comparisons are getting scary, both musically and in terms of song titles. These sound like they could be b-sides in the painted legends’ catalogue, but unfortunately, when Kiss were bad they were pretty damn bad; ‘Superman’ is full of misogynistic shite last heard being spouted from the mouth of Gene Simmons. But Kiss’ music was all about drive and freedom, and ‘Fortune & Fame’ - which could be the theme of a Rocky film - is the sort of get-up-and-go anthem that makes you want to get the fuck up and GO.

Sweden can’t be experiencing the same recession problems that we have, since Mama Kin are having champagne with their chicks and rock ‘n’ roll on the closing track, which is a fast-paced, reckless, boozy shout-a-long and really takes things out with a bang. And this high-class imagery is true; the seeds of a fantastic band have been sown in this piece of work, and if watered with the right amount of Jack Daniel’s (oh sorry, champagne) and pruned of the leaves that mar this offering in places, it could grow into something beautiful indeed. They wear their influences on their sleeves - when they haven’t removed their shirts to show off their skinny frames and tattoos - but manage to create a hearty sound reminiscent of the greats that probably won’t make you want to turn it off before the end.

In The City is available to buy or download at Play.com

Genre : Metal, Sleaze metal
For fans of: Paul Stanley, The*Ga*Ga*s.

Article by Andy McDonald