Melbourne’s Bitter Sweet Kicks believe in the ethos of hitting hard and fast and then moving on. Each of their three releases to date has been a seven-track affair, long on dirty, high energy rock and roll and short on indulgences.
“Eat Your Young” is a blast from go to whoa, pulling no punches but not always taking the obvious path. The creeping “Dropped” is a prime example, skulking along on the back of a fuzzed bass-line and understated guitar licks before ramping things up in the chorus.
Similarly, “Can’t Quite Manage” shapes as a blues dirge before morphing into a Beasts of Bourbon-styled fast shuffle with country-flecked guitars. This one sounds like a message to a drug-fucked significant other. “All Falls Apart” vaguely echoes Chain’s chain gang “Black and Blue” before erupting into a magnificent sonic cacophony.
You can’t capture Jack Davies' on-stage antics on record but this record’s the next best thing. He’s a rare talent, alternately snarling or blues-shouting his way through these seven songs like a pub rock veteran with three decades service under his belt. Guitarists Brendan Charlie and Chris Taranto are perfect foils for him and each other - one listen to opening track “Putain de Merde” (it’s French for “fucking shit”) should convince you of that.
Behind every great rock and roll band is a great engine room and “Been Low” the is gem among this lot with its wrecking ball swing and massed backing vocals, while the boogie-ish “Col. Party” varies the speed to pub rock rave-up.
“Eat Your Young” is on French label Beast Records whose taste for all things excellent (especially from Australia) is beyond dispute. It’s on vinyl (naturally enough) or available as a download. As usual, the link appears below.
3/4
