Halfpenny Dancer – The Quireboys (0/5)

01. There she goes again 03:28 02. Devil of a man 03:15 03. Love to love 03:59 04. Mona Lisa smiled 04:29 05. Halfpenny dancer 04:07 06. I can’t stop loving you 04:23 07. Roses & Rings 04:56 08. Baby its you 03:15 09. Hello 04:38 10. Pretty girls 03:56 11. He’ll have to go 02:57 12. Long time comin’ 03:01 13. Have a drink with me 03:35 14. Hates to please 05:15 15. King of New York 06:08

Where to start with The Quireboys, well firstly ‘Halfpenny Dancer’ is definitely a well-deserved album title. From a band who has brought us great albums in the past like ‘A Bit of What You Fancy’ and ‘Bitter Sweet and Twisted’, it’s very hard for me to say this, but I’m really disappointed. There’s just no balls and style to the music anymore. They’ve taken songs that could be good if plugged into an amp and played loud, and turned it into simple acoustic songs, which is a departure from their usual style and may put off some fans.

It doesn’t take a clever person to see that The Quireboys have gone safe with this album. The songs are simple, the lyrical themes have no depth or inner meaning to them and worst of all The Quireboy’s songs have lost their fun edge. I’m not joking when I say this. Who plays a bloody fiddle and violin in a good old fashion Rock ‘n Roll band? Well looks like The Quireboys have tried this method, and it’s added to the failure of this album. Is the band getting to old for this job or is Halfpenny just a blemish in The Quireboy timeline?

Now, I don’t want to be ringing the death knell for once again another band. But in The Quireboys case I have heard their material become more monotonous since their release of ‘A Bit of What You Fancy’ back in 2000. This is not what I want to see from a band that can bring the roof down with bluesy riffs and amazing sing along choruses.

The Quireboys are about to launch a UK tour advertising the Halfpenny Dancer album. It puts shivers down my spine to imagine the silence that will go down in those locations as soon as the first song from this album hits them. Kind of scary. So come on lads step up I don’t want you to go to rock heaven “as the band who killed rock ‘n roll”, with a rubbish acoustic project.

Halfpenny Dancer is available to buy or download at Play.com

Genre : Metal, Rock ‘n Roll

Article by Matt Seddon