Hailing from the same hometown as the legendary Dead Boys, The Vacancies are breaking big with A Beat Missing Or A Silence Added and they deserve it. Although they might have gotten their initial big exposure through their connection with Joan Jett (Jett fell in love with this band to the point of signing them to her label and producing their album), the fact is that it's simply a great punk rock album.
Various Sounds Abound
Blending raw punk energy with pure powerful rock and roll riffs, A Beat Missing Or A Silence Added mixes up the sounds, and keeps your attention from the album's beginning to its end.
It's hard to pick out the best parts of an album that is made up of one great song after another. Seriously, it's all good and all over the place, from the straightforward rock of tracks like "Save Yourself" and "Radio Revolution", which Joan Jett named her Sirius radio show after, to the all-out punk assaults of tracks like "Draw By Numbers".
"Closer" even breaks into a random bit of ska for one verse before tearing back into the straight-up punk riffs, and "Hey Man" is a garage rocker that instantly makes me think of Bowie's "Suffragette City", due to both its sound at the fact that each line begins with a "Hey Man" delivered in the same way that Bowie did.
The Message Behind The Music
The album is lyrically upbeat, even though it deals with topics that could really be a downer. "Save Yourself", with its chorus of "No one's gonna save you - save yourself", is a kick in the pants to people who want to wallow in self-pity, and the album's closing track "L.F.D.Y." hammers their message home with the chorus "Live fast and die young is better said than done."
If you're looking for tired, played out, nihilistic punk rock that's all about posture and pose, you're going to want to look elsewhere. If you're looking for in-your-face rock that refuses to let you feel sorry for yourself, A Beat Missing Or A Silence Added is the album to be picking up. Trust me on this. You'll play it over and over because it's simply that good, and eventually you'll realize it has a message as well.
Also, Joan Jett loves them, so you should too.
