The last time I encountered Gasoline Outlaws was in a cosy little room at Wildfire festival in 2016 where we caught them in Edinburgh last year and they’re now out and about ing their latest release Light Up The World. It was funded by a Pledge campaign (before that site seemed to go a bit… tits up) and is available to Joe Public from April 5th.
So what should you expect from this 10-song collection? Well, some decent heart-and-soul-felt rock’n’roll with a country/southern twang. There are some right rockers and a couple of superb ballads which will get the hairs on the back of your neck standing up.
Opener “Light Up The World” is a nice little tub-thumper which gets things going. Plenty of rhythm and a decent, simple chorus make it a good one to start with but it’s not the strongest song of the collection. Oh, no – it gets better. “Livin’ This Way”, for instance, is just… dirtier. A tad gritty, it adds a little something that I felt the title track was lacking and this same bluesy veneer has been applied to “Hard Times” which closes the album off. It definitely works. Matt Fitzsimons’ vocals crackle nicely in both tracks as he really lets the feelings pour out.
For a proper heavy stomp, “Psycho” is probably the best song on here. Eerie to begin with, it builds to a pounding chorus and some cracking guitar work from Adam Parkin who chucks out some excellent solo widdling. “Breathe Again” maybe tops it with a flurry of music that makes you want to do a damn Irish jig, never mind just bang your head.
As I mentioned, though, the pair of ballads also work really well. I love “Where We Started”, and “Executed” isn’t bad either. Both have a vague country and western sound but don’t hold that against them! They’re both superb rock ballads and if Gasoline Outlaws ever consider doing an acoustic set then they have two songs already written which will blow the audience away.
For those who already have the album, I hope you’re enjoying it as much as I have this last couple of weeks. For the rest of you, look it up once it’s available on general release.
Light Up The World is out on April 5th
