22-20's - 22-20's

I keep saying it and at some point I know it wont apply anymore but 2004 has been a superb year for music fans, in particular Indie music fans. My latest discovery are the 22 - 20’s. For months amazon have been trying to ram their album down my throat. I managed to resist the temptation as I hadn’t really heard of them and the rest of my Amazon recommendations were crap, as normal. I was wondering through Virgin a few weeks ago looking for a few ...
...it was like.

It’s not just been a good year for Indie music it’s also been a good year for new, decent British bands. In fact the 22 - 20’s have been dubbed the British White Stripes in certain quarters of the music press. If anything though I think they are actually better. Coming from deepest darkest Lincolnshire they seem to have already overcome a lot to secure themselves a record deal. The band recorded their debut album in a ... more

I keep saying it and at some point I know it wont apply anymore but 2004 has been a superb year for music fans, in particular Indie music fans. My latest discovery are the 22 - 20’s. For months amazon have been trying to ram their album down my throat. I managed to resist the temptation as I hadn’t really heard of them and the rest of my Amazon recommendations were crap, as normal. I was wondering through Virgin a few weeks ago looking for a few Christmas presents and thought I’d buy it and see what it was like.

It’s not just been a good year for Indie music it’s also been a good year for new, decent British bands. In fact the 22 - 20’s have been dubbed the British White Stripes in certain quarters of the music press. If anything though I think they are actually better. Coming from deepest darkest Lincolnshire they seem to have already overcome a lot to secure themselves a record deal. The band recorded their debut album in a mixture of 3 different studios with the help of Brendan Lynch producing it for them.

The resulting album from the 4 piece is superb and certainly worth the praise they seem to have got from certain quarters. They themselves have admitted they had to kerb a tendency to sound like the Rolling Stones. It means the album is a touch darker than it might have been with a Stones influence but it sounds fantastic for it. It certainly merited it’s place on my Amazon recommendations that’s for sure and I think I‘ll take them up on a few others soon.

It’s quite a diverse album musically and with a number of different styles incorporated it keeps it incredibly fresh all the way through. The Bass plays a massive part as they use it on a number of tracks to keep the rhythm moving. Coupled with that each track has a solid drumbeat backing that compliments the Bass superbly. This combination makes for a pretty decent album with the main guitar pretty much going where it likes. This helps the album to keep the interest a lot more than I find The White Stripes albums actually lend themselves too. It’s the part the Bass plays in the overall feel of the album that shows what the Stripes are missing to stop them being truly great.

I also felt that the album is incredibly well written, both musically and from a lyrical point of view. The main them of the album is lost love, as it seems to be with most Indie albums these days. It’s certainly an album that comes from the heart though and that is evident in just about every track. It’s clear that Martin Trimble (lead singer/guitarist) is a class act and seems to lend his vocals perfectly to just about every track on the album. When combined with the vocals there really is a sense of Bluesy Rock steaming from the album and the 22-20’s seem to have got it absolutely spot on.

It’s hard to pick a favourite track as all 10 tracks are pretty much even. I do quite like the albums opening track “Devil In Me”, which opens with a decent Blusey guitar. It’s quite a refreshing sort of track that sounds different to just about everything else released this year. There are a number of tracks that took a while to grow on me but having had the album for about a month now I can’t say there are any tracks I don’t like on it. “Friends” took a while to grow on me as it’s a much slower track than a lot of the others. It’s now possibly my second favourite on the album as the more I’ve listened to it the more I love it.

So do they deserve the title of British White Stripes? I have to say no and that’s not out of disrespect to the band. I think they are much better than the White Stripes and deserve to be known as the 22-20’s rather than the new this or that. The album is a real gem and one I have to say I’m glad I did find. There are hints of White Stripes in there as well as bits of the Stones as well a perfect combination the way it’s done. If you’re a fan of Indie or even Blues then by this album. If you don’t buy it watch out for the 22-20’s being huge in a few years time.

Amazon: £9.99 

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