Hello one and all, and welcome to yet another album review. Today we’ll be looking at Strange Days (not to be confused with the Doors album of the same name), the latest release from glam rock revivalists, The Struts. The Struts are more or less a throwback act, in the same vein as Greta Van Fleet, but drawing influences from a handful of classic rock acts, most notably Queen and The Rolling Stones. And while this doesn’t always make for the most original music, I must say that they’re one of my favorite live acts to come out of the last decade, so never pass on a chance to see them. But what do we get with Strange Days, and how does it compare to the band’s first two records?
Well, the most notable trait of this album, upon first look at the tracklist is the abundance of guest appearances. And I must say, these inclusions make for a more layered and flavorful listen than we might have otherwise gotten, and several of these songs are pretty fun. Perhaps the best of these guest features is Tom Morello’s guitar work on “Wild Child,” a hard rock rager, featuring Luke Spiller’s signature vocal style and melody writing, set to an instrumental taken straight out of Rage Against The Machine’s playbook. “Another Hit Of Showmanship” is an upbeat garage rock romp, featuring guitar work from Albert Hammond Jr. of The Strokes. “I Hate How Much I Want You” is a catchy, sugary blast of glam rock ecstasy that could be straight off of Everybody Wants, and features Joe Elliott and Phil Collen of Def Leppard. Collen and Struts guitarist Adam Slack share a blazing dueling guitar solo, while Elliott’s voice feels very underused, acting as a backing vocal to Spiller more often than not. Not to mention the cringy opening phone call bit between Spiller and Elliott, which reeks of 80s music video cheese. All that aside, this is still probably my favorite song on the album. And of course, there’s “Strange Days,” the title track and lead single, featuring Robbie Williams. As a ballad, this song makes little sense as an album opener, though it’s more than serviceable as a standalone track. And while I don’t feel that Williams’ contribution really adds anything to the track, he don’t take anything away either. He’s honestly just kind of there. Overall, the guest appearances on this record are a major positive. Unfortunately, this is about as good as it gets.
Now don’t get me wrong, there are other good moments here. “Burn It Down” is a gorgeous, moody ballad, resembling something from the Let It Be era of The Beatles. We also get a solid enough cover of “Do You Love Me” by KISS. And while The Struts are known to occasionally throw in covers as part of their live shows, they’ve never really shown up on the band’s records. But hey, the more time I spent with this particular track, the more I realize what a perfect song this is for The Struts to cover. You’ve got the high-octane, stadium-ready 70’s rock vibe, combined with lyrics that are more or less about a rock star telling a love interest how great he is. Needless to say, if I was unfamiliar with the original song, I would have no trouble believing The Struts wrote this. And that leaves us with the painfully forgettable “All Dressed Up (With Nowhere To Go)” and “Can’t Sleep,” and the initially enjoyable, but tediously long “Cool” and “Am I Talking To The Champagne (Or Talking To You),” the latter drawing influence from The Rolling Stones’ disco era. Yikes. So for those of you keeping track, that’s four songs out of 10 that are entirely skippable. Not good.
Musically and stylistically, this album bears much more resemblance to their first album than their second. And while I prefer the pure, unadulterated rock and roll sound of an Everybody Wants to the more polished, pop-centric tonal profile of YOUNG&DANGEROUS, I do feel that YOUNG&DANGEROUS has a much more complete and cohesive feeling than the more scattered, uneven Everybody Wants. And that satisfying cohesion is also more or less lost with Strange Days. But perhaps the greatest crime this album commits is the lack of boisterous dynamism that this band’s music has possessed up to this point. If you are a fan of the band’s epic, anthemic, stadium-ready smashes, such as “Could Have Been Me,” “Roll Up,” “One Night Only,” “Fire,” and “Ashes,” you will probably find a lot of this album to be a bit of a bore, as not even the most upbeat tracks come anywhere close to that caliber.
Lyrically, there’s not really much I can say about this album that hasn’t already said about the bulk of this band’s work. “Strange Days” is the major exception, serving as an optimistic outlook on the pandemic situation. As the lead single, this song misdirected me to believe that perhaps this would be a “quarantine album,” as many other artists have done. But apart from this song, we largely hear more of the same wanky, glam rock bravado that we’ve always gotten, and which can make this band’s writing so frustrating. I don’t know whether Spiller is just playing the role of the larger-than-life rock and roll frontman, or he’s really just that full of himself, but either way, there are only so many different ways you can write about how cool, stylish, talented, and good in the sack you are (and I’m saying this as a fan).
As someone who genuinely enjoys The Struts, I truly wanted to like this album more than I do. Unfortunately, it really feels like an uneven slump that is largely carried by guest appearances. And hey, these guest appearances are largely really good. Honestly, with a few more guests, they could have made a pretty solid collaborations album out of this project, or at least released the four collabs as an EP, and cut out the rest of the filler. I won’t say this album is bad. Far from it, in fact. Just underwhelming. And when you have a band that absolutely bursts at the seems with dynamism and personality at their best moments, underwhelming is far from acceptable.
Score: 5/10
Favorite Song(s): I Hate How Much I Want You, Wild Child, Burn It Down
Least Favorite Song(s): Cool, Am I Talking To The Champagne (Or Talking To You), Can’t Sleep
Phil Klinker Music Reviews 