Barbe-Q-Barbies – Breaking All The Rules
BARBE-Q-BARBIES
BREAKING ALL THE RULES
Released February 15, 2013 (Sound Of Finland)
CD Track List:
01. Crashing Down
02. One More (And I’ll Be Gone)
03. Whole Lotta You
04. Breaking All The Rules
05. STFU
06. Due Time
07. Love Machine
08. Can’t Get What You’re Looking For
09. Gun In My Hand
10. Shout It Out
11. Friday
Band:
Niki Rock – vocals
Kaisa Karjalainen – guitar and backing vocals
Ekkis Laine – guitar
Minttu Muranen – bass
Niina Klemetti – drums and backing vocals
Additional Musicians:
Janne Saksa – piano and tambourine
Production:
Produced, recorded and mixed by Janne Saksa.
Review:
If you need to be reminded not to judge a book by its cover, well, here you go. The Barbe-Q-Barbies are not the ‘poppy’ Heart wannabes I pictured, instead they are a female group of rocking bad-asses from Finland. Breaking All The Rules, the band’s second full-length album, is music made for bars and pubs after a long day when you are done working — drinking to get wasted and looking for trouble.
The first track, “Crashing Down”, is an escalating song with a radio friendly “world is crashing down” hook. The following songs, “One More (And I’ll Be Gone)”, “Whole Lotta You”, and “Breaking All The Rules” are the bread and butter of this band. I don’t normally associate bluesy hard hat/lunch pail rock and roll with female rock bands, but in this case, I stand corrected. The Barbe-Q-Barbies grind their guitars and snarl the choruses, producing blue-collar rock anthems to be played loud while consuming copious amounts of alcohol.
The album’s first single and video, “STFU”, is my favorite — the chorus of “shut the fuck up and dance” is addictive, the energy raw, and the sexually aggressive lyrics remind me of something Axl Rose might write (to offset one too many ballads). The second half of Breaking All The Rules continues with AC/DC like riffs and good time lyrics. The one exception is “Gun In My Hand”, a serious ballad that doesn’t really fit on this gritty, down-to-fuck album.
Breaking All The Rules is a pleasant surprise waiting for anyone wanting AC/DC with a female twist, or who just want to have a drink and then ‘shut up and dance’.
www.barbeqbarbies.com – www.facebook.com/barbeqbarbies – www.sofmusic.fi
Reviewed by David S. Grant (author of Rock Stars) for Sleaze Roxx, April 2013
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