With their big hair and tight jeans, Towers of London may look like Motley Crue, but they rock like the Sex Pistols.
Simply put, Blood Sweat & Towers is one of the best albums of the year, and you should go buy it when it hits the streets on August 1. If I haven't sold you based on that recommendation, you can read on, because I'll tell you why.
Pure Powerful Party Punk Rock
Towers of London have created one of the best modern albums for playing loud and partying since Andrew WK released "I Get Wet" (which is still the best modern party rock album, but I digress), and they do it with a decadent dignity.
Whereas I continually debated the seriousness of the Darkness and their throwback look and sound, there is no question that Towers are serious about rock and roll. With a sound that combines the Sex Pistols (minus the politics) and trashy arena glam rock, they deliver each track fast and furiously, with buzzsaw guitar riffs, punk rock hooks, gratuitous solos and power chords galore.
When vocalist Donny Tourette rips into the opening lines of the first track, "I'm a Rat", it's apparent that he's channelling Johnny Rotten's sneer, and while The Sex Pistols may have not approved of the overblown nature of their brand of glam punk, they definitely would approve of their ability to spread mayhem.
Attitude Dipped in Glitter
Every track on this album is pure decadent noise. "F**k It Up", with its opening line of "D'ya think it's fair to walk right up, take my life and just f**k it up?", takes a song about a bad relationship and turns it into an arena rocker (the track also appears on the album as an acoustic version, which changes the song to an equally catchy down-at-the-pub-singalong), and "Kill The Pop Scene" is a self-righteous slap at the music world that is simultaneously catchy and defiant.
The band shows its range with the ballad-into-rock song "King", a '70s throwback that features a 30-piece orchestra before dropping into fast punk rock, and the line that could sum up the Towers' philosophy, "I burnt my bridge and now I'll do it my way."
The album's production is impeccable in a way that almost puts it at odds with itself. It's too clean for some of its power, yet I can't imagine fuzzing up any of their rock and roll riffs, either.
So you can avoid my recommendation and not get this record, but it will catch up with you eventually. Even I wanted to ascribe Blood Sweat & Towers with the status of guilty pleasure at first, but the simple fact is that Towers of London are too good to feel guilty about liking.
